HEALTH AND SANITATION 33
C651 , Disinfection of Water Mains , or C652 , Disinfection of Storage Facilities , as methods for disinfecting a premise ’ s water system before it is occupied . However , neither of these standards are intended to be applied in building plumbing systems . In fact , recent updates of both standards have explicitly stated that they are not to be used for building plumbing system disinfection , leaving plumbing design engineers and disinfection contractors at a loss for a reference method .
To fill this gap that has historically ( and unintentionally ) been filled via AWWA C651 and C652 , the Building Disinfection Subcommittee is drafting building-specific guidance for flushing and disinfecting newly constructed or renovated buildings . The guidance will detail how to avoid the most common pitfalls encountered when performing pre-occupancy flushing and disinfection , such as inadequately purging the system of construction-related deleterious matter and slug-dosing disinfectants that may result in uncontrolled high ( or low ) levels of disinfectant that can damage the system or provide inadequate disinfection . The guidance will also include recommendations for assessing the disinfection protocol ’ s success through microbiological measurements . Intended for publication as an AWWA technical report , the guidance will provide a reference for building specifications so design engineers , disinfecting contractors , and building owners can sleep a little better at night .
Additional Efforts The Premise Plumbing Committee is beginning to address additional issues that keep committee members up at night through two new workgroups . One workgroup is exploring how to improve operations of building water systems to preserve water quality . This need arose after considering that these systems have become more complex over the past few decades and that conditions ( including hydraulics ) in building water systems are different from those in distribution systems .
Another workgroup is looking at the water-energy nexus . Although several organisations are already working on this topic , the AWWA workgroup has observed that water quality is often a neglected component of these discussions . Therefore , this workgroup is exploring options to narrow the gaps within the broader industry and elevate water quality in water – energy nexus discussions . These are some of the important challenges on the minds of Premise Plumbing Committee volunteers and likely mirror some of the challenges faced by Journal AWWA readers .
Acknowledgment The Premise Plumbing Committee ’ s chair , Simoni Triantafyllidou , and vice chairs , Alex Mofidi and Hélène Baribeau , thank Jennifer Liggett , Sheldon Masters , and William Rhoads for reporting their subcommittees ’ efforts for this column . Thanks also to all the subcommittee teams and leaders for their service , including Jennifer Liggett of the Lead-in-Water Subcommittee , Min Tang of the Copper-in-Water Subcommittee , and William Rhoads of the Building Disinfection Subcommittee , as well the water-energy nexus and building water operations workgroups and their leader , Tim Bartrand .
https :// doi . org / 10.1002 / awwa . 1888
Reprinted with AWWA Permission from Journal AWWA April 2022
Plumbing Editor ’ s Comment . It is good to have such articles which keep us in the loop regarding water quality . Also encouraging are the efforts being made in South Africa to close the gap in all our standards and have one water standard . SA and the standards body should be working closely with international bodies . PA
October 2022 Volume 28 I Number 8 www . plumbingafrica . co . za