Your Official Backflow Preventer Tester
Now I Can Test This!!
That’s right everybody… I passed the test, and have now become a back flow preventer tester. I can’t wait to get started!! So, I like to make fun of the concept, and I originally made fun of the 1 week class; but it turns out that people have died because of backflow. I think that I’ve gotten ahead of myself. Backflow is the idea that our drinking water can possibly be contaminated by water that has been through the city’s pipes and then, for any number of reasons, gets polluted and sucked back into the city’s pipes. It is far fetched, but how about the guy that turned on his shower and acid (???!!!) came out of his shower head. Or maybe one of the incidents here in Utah where somebody went to fill up their glass with soda, at a restaurant, and antifreeze came out. It’s estimated that there are 10,000 incidents reported annually. So the class was to teach us about backflow prevention and to teach us how to test the actual mechanism that prevents the backflowage. It’s more technical than it sounds.
Finally, Friday shows up and we’re all ready to take the test. I want you to feel with me the pressure of one week worth of classes, $550 worth of company money, 1 written exam, 1 lab exam, and 30 redneck guys (like me) pretending we understand what a “reduced pressure principle backflow prevention assembly” is. My bloodpressure was through the roof, and on top of it all I had to argue with the guy that was testing me to get him to pass me. Turns out he was wrong, even though he failed me to begin with, and I passed… feeyew! I sat in my truck and talked to my wife for about 20 minutes before I could calm my nerves enough to brave a freeway. So next time you leave a hose sitting in acid suspended 50 feet in the air, and suspect that the water main is going to break, remember to check the atmospheric pressure breaker at the hose bib so that you don’t hurt somebody.
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