Welcome Backflow Tester

Butler Rural Water District # 5 works diligently to ensure safe, quality drinking water that is free from any contaminants. This effort begins with the protection of our source water and continues through the entire distribution system ending where you draw water from the faucets in your home or business.  The cross-connection program helps ensure safe water for all customers in our system by protecting the water distribution system from contamination through cross-connections. By eliminating cross-connections, we assure all users on our system, regardless of where they are within the system, the same protected assurance of safe drinking water.  A cross-connection is any actual or potential connection between the public water supply and a possible source of contaminants. Lawn irrigation systems are cross-connections when they are connected directly to the District's water supply.  Under normal conditions, water flows directly from the District's water mains to your property. However, water pressure can suddenly drop due to high water usage, when the water main breaks, or fighting a fire in the water distribution system. This can create a vacuum in the water system, drawing liquid from an unprotected cross-connection into the water supply. This reversal in the direction of normal flow of water in a piping system is called backflow. Lawn irrigation systems are considered "high risk" cross-connections because backflow could introduce fertilizers, pesticides, and other lawn chemicals into the drinking water system. To prevent this and keep the water safe the District adopted the requirement that all lawn irrigation systems must be equipped with an approved backflow preventer.  Cross-Connections can be prevented by the use a of backflow preventer, which is a device that prevents contaminants from being drawn back into the safe drinking water supply.  Outside frost-proof yard hydrants and movable hoses attached to threaded faucets should be equipped with a vacuum breaker, specifically if used in livestock applications.  The District's Cross-Connection Program is in accordance with the Federal Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments, the State of Kansas Statutes 65-163a-b, 65-171a-y, and RWD#5 Cross-Connection Control Ordinance adopted January 8, 2002. The program requires that all backflow prevention devices be tested and inspected annually by a certified tester to ensure that the device is functioning properly. The test report must be provided to RWD#5 and retained on file for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment routine inspection.