Your Responsibilities as a Homeowner

The city tries to identify and control every last cross-connection within our city. This, of course, is impossible. As the end user of Northglenn's water distribution system, you hold a share of the responsibility for keeping our water clean and free from potential hazards. Once the water is in your home, only you can prevent it from being contaminated.

To help keep our water clean, the city asks that you eliminate any cross-connections in your home and protect those that cannot be eliminated. Anything that happens to the water will affect you, the resident, first. So, it is in your best interest to make sure the water does not come in direct contact with harmful substances.

Where to Look in Your Home and Yard

The garden hose is considered to be the one item at home that has contributed to the largest number of cross-connection incidents. Why is this? Just think of all the things people do with a hose at home: water the lawn, fill a swimming pool, wash the car and dog, flush a car's radiator, apply chemicals such as fertilizers, herbicides and insecticides, and even unclog sewer lines. Each of these activities can put the drinking water system at risk if the hose comes in direct contact with a non-potable substance.

Other Common Cross-Connections

• Lawn sprinkler system
• Solar heating system
• Swimming pool

Although your plumbing system may have been designed and constructed with great care in the past, it may not be as safe as you'd like it. Each of the above systems should have a backflow prevention device installed upstream. If it does, have the device inspected annually by a certified cross-connection control technician. If it doesn't, have a device installed by a licensed plumber. Be aware of other situations where your home water supply does or could contact any non-potable liquid. A good thing to keep in mind is that if drinking water is physically connected (by a pipe or hose) to non-drinkable water, the potential exists to contaminate the drinking water. Don't create a cross-connection if another, safer, way is possible. If the cross-connection cannot be avoided, install the proper backflow preventer on the water line. Look at every usage point and visualize what might happen if the flow suddenly reversed from the normal direction.

To protect the quality of tap water in your home:
• Never allow hoses to be submerged in sinks, pools, mixing tanks, buckets, etc.
• Install hose bibb backflow preventers to prevent backsiphonage through hoses, and replace them every couple of years, as they wear out.
• Make sure any plumbing work done in your home is performed by a licensed plumber.
• Have a mechanical backflow preventer inspected annually by a certified cross-connection control technician.
• If at any time you suspect backflow may have occurred in or near your residence, please call 303-451-1289.