Woodside: Ungainly device protects drinking water

For crying out loud. Plant a couple plants on either side of the device. These things are important to the quality of our drinking water.

How about a challenge to your Woodside artists, gardeners and tinkerers to figure out a solution?

There must be no end of ideas to improve the looks of this ungainly device device so you can protect the beauty of your town while you protect your drinking water.

Based on the new state law passed recently, I have to put these expensive devices, retroactively, on property I own. The expense to property owners at large is immense when compared to the benefit it serves the population. These costs are passed onto tenants who pass it on to the consumer, you and me.
I have never heard of any illnesses caused from the situation these backflow preventers are designed to prevent.
It smells more like a plumber’s union has more interest in this new state law than any public health officials.
I am not stating that someone can’t find a documented situation where a backflow preventer would have prevented an actual health problem, only that the cost is not weighed against the benefits.

been there:

define "huge cost."

with the mandate for sprinklers in all new construction, does Mr Carrasco's second to last paragraph mean that these are coming everywhere?

I agree that there is an opportunity for a design challenge, even if only to break away from the utilitarian color coding. Why must they be above ground, for instance?

This question of whether all new construction will require backflow preventers came up at the Jan. 25 Woodside Town Council meeting.

While all significant new construction will require interior sprinklers, Tony Carrasco of Cal Water asserted that not all those projects will require waterline backflow preventers.

That question will be answered project by project by Cal Water.

One way to avoid the need for a backflow preventer, Mr. Carrasco said, is to install a "looped" type of sprinkler system that continually refreshes its water supply.

(Traditional sprinkler systems apparently have the same water sitting in them for long period of time, allowing it to become stagnant and potentially dangerous.)

A looped sprinkler system notwithstanding, if the property also has a well or a swimming pool, Cal Water may consider a backflow preventer necessary.

As for preventers being above ground, when they were allowed below ground there were cases in which the vault flooded, Mr. Carrasco said. The devices were then immersed in water that could have been tainted. Not good, he said.

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