If your home has sprinklers or a swimming pool, you already know about backflow prevention assemblies. This device, usually covered by a plexiglass box and located at the side of your house, keeps contaminated water from your lawn or pool from flowing back into your home and public water supply.  

But did you know about a new North Carolina state law that makes it even more important for you to keep up with regular inspections of your backflow device? 

Until recently, North Carolina utilities like CFPUA could require homeowners to test their backflow devices annually. This was helpful for property owners and the community because regular inspection helps ensure backflow devices are functioning properly, which in turn protects our community’s water supply from potentially harmful contaminants that can backflow into the system during a sudden drop in water pressure.  

North Carolina Session Law 2024-49, which went into effect in September, changes how frequently water utilities can require these inspections. Now, utilities can only require homeowners to perform these important inspections every three years. The annual inspection requirement remains in place for businesses with backflow devices. 

It may sound like this new law means homeowners have less responsibility to keep their backflow assemblies inspected. In fact, the law actually shifts legal liability for backflow-related contamination events onto homeowners.  

Although CFPUA can no longer require you to have your backflow device tested yearly, we recommend you do.  

Your home’s backflow device is there to protect you in the event of water main breaks, repairs, or maintenance that cause water pressure to drop in the distribution system. Regular testing is the best way to catch any mechanical problems with your device that could lead to a backflow event.  

At least 20% of backflow devices fail their inspection due to mechanical problems every year. Without a working backflow assembly, dirt, chemicals, and contaminants from your lawn or pool can be sucked right back into the water system.  

No one wants to be that neighbor — the neighbor who contaminated the drinking water on the block because they didn’t get their device inspected.  

To make the process easy, CFPUA maintains a list of local certified inspectors on our website at www.CFPUA.org/Backflow. There, you can find other helpful information and forms related to your backflow device.  

If you are one of the thousands of homeowners in CFPUA’s service area with a backflow device, we encourage you to keep up with regular inspections to protect your family, your neighbors, and our community’s high quality drinking water.