Backflowing Water Solves Windsor Unemployment Issue

It is good thing that Joe the Plumber did not decide to help John McCain more or President Obama would not have won the election! Plumbers are becoming the most important group in our society. Make sure that your kids go to plumbing school. Who needs a doctor or lawyer!

It is not for me to tell people what they ought to do. However, if you, dear reader, are unemployed or fear that you might be unemployed from a high paying auto industry job, then you can either go and work at a minimum wage call centre or go back to school and become a plumber.

The City of Windsor will make sure that your career move is a good one and you will be assured of a high income. Moreover, in helping you out, the City will be helping itself out as well with all of the new licence fees that it will be charging to home and business owners over the next few years.

It is a brilliant plan that obviously has been discussed in camera. It solves the unemployment issue in this City dramatically while at the same time enriching this City’s coffers with new license fees so that more foreign consultants can be hired for more THINK BIG dreams.

Let me explain. Do you know what one of the biggest risks to the City’s water system is:

• "What is a Cross Connection?
  A Cross Connection in a plumbing system is defined as "any actual or potential connection between a potable water system and any source of pollution or contaminate".
  
  What is the most common form of a cross connection?
  The garden hose is the most common offender as it can be easily connected to the potable water supply and used for a variety of potential dangerous applications.”

Do you think I am being silly? You would think that the biggest source of pollution could come from some industrial operation and that is why there is a need for protection. Honestly, I do not make this stuff up. This came from the Ontario Backflow Prevention Association.

Since the garden hose is the biggest risk, then there is a need for someone to look at every home and business in the City, continually. Do you see what I’m getting at? You are looking at making big dollars in your new career.

How is the City of Windsor going to help you out you may be wondering? Take a look at this Windsor Utilities Commission by-law summary:

• “By-Law 90: Cross Connection and Back-Flow Prevention
  
  The purpose of this by law is to prevent the inadvertent contamination of the water distribution system by the backflow of a contaminant into the distribution main. A condition may exist that reduces the pressure in the main such as a significant leak or major use of water such as fighting a fire. The bylaw mandates the installation and annual testing by a qualified person (such as a plumber) of cross connection control backflow prevention devices and premise isolation devices in accordance with the provisions of the Canadian Standards Association. The bylaw provides that:
  
  No Consumer or other person shall connect, cause to be connected, or allow to remain connected to the Water Works Distribution System, directly or indirectly, any piping, fixture, fitting, container, vehicle, device, appliance, or the like, in a manner which under any circumstances, may allow water, waste, or any other liquid, chemical, foreign or deleterious substance to enter the Water Works Distribution System.
  
  and
  
  Where a risk of possible contamination of the Water Works Distribution System exists in the opinion of the Commission or an Approved Authority, a Consumer or other person shall, on notice from the Commission or Approved Authority, install and put into service a Cross Connection Control Device approved by the Commission or Approved Authority.”

My understanding is that letters have been sent out to businesses requiring them to install these devices immediately. Depending on the size of the business, the costs can run into thousands of dollars. And don’t forget

• “All Cross Connection Control Devices shall be inspected and tested at the expense of the Consumer or other person upon installation, and thereafter annually, or more often if required by the Commission.”

The plumbers will have so much work to do that they will never be able to see their families! Check out too the "annual" inspections which will require an annual licence. Think of the money that will come pouring in. Oooooops sorry, bad choice of language. I wonder if the sewer surcharge will apply to this so an even bigger hit!

The Bylaw does not say that residences are exempt. How can they be when garden hoses are the big problem?

So far however the Commission has taken this position:

• “section 2.3 -" Where a risk of possible contamination of the Water Works Distribution System exists in the opinion of the Commission or an Approved Authority".
  
  Right now as the Commission we deem anything that is non-residential use as a risk of possible contamination.”

However, once the businesses are completed, the plumbers will need more work. What will happen then? You got it. Notices will be sent out to residences to put in devices as well. Their opinion will change.

I have seen some stories that suggest that the price of these devices for a house can run between $100-$500 plus installation. I wonder what the annual licensing amount will be too.

Here is a story out of Ottawa that puts this into an interesting perspective. It is clearly anti-plumber:

• “IN THE GREEN: City water retrofit requirements all wet, opponents charge
  
  Landlords say no examples exist to justify backflow prevention upgrades
  
  Critics say a city proposal that would force the property owners behind nearly 9,300 water billing accounts to make costly connection upgrades is an overreaction to a non-existent problem.
  
  City staff are working on a plan that would require backflow preventers to be installed on many Ottawa multi-residential, industrial, commercial and institutional buildings to prevent water supply contamination.
  
  Such devices can cost between $8,000 and $12,000 for a 100-unit apartment, said John Dickie, chair of the Eastern Ontario Landlord Organization.
  
  "We're all set to concur with the need to fix problems," said Mr. Dickie.
  
  "But there seems to be no or very few documented cases of problems ... that these devices would prevent among multi-residential buildings."

I really should end this BLOG right here because this is bad enough. However I cannot do so because of another story I saw. St. Clair College will have to set up a separate campus to train all the plumbers that will be necessary by the time this project is finished.

This could be the real reason why Eddie is so opposed to the DRIC road. He knows that all of our unemployed will have skills training to become high-paid plumbers. They will not be able to work on the road. This will be his PLAN by the time the glory has to be handed out.

Read this and weep. Solving the backflow problem creates another major one for which plumbers will also be required and probably insurance adjusters as well after there is water damage in homes and businesses:

• “The reason this is a relatively new problem is that, until recently, most household systems were open to the municipal water supply, which meant when household water was heated it simply expanded back into the municipal supply. The situation has changed and it is becoming the norm for municipalities to enforce existing codes and regulations, requiring the installation of a dual check valve, or what is more commonly known as a backflow preventer. With the installation of a backflow preventer or water meter with a check valve that had previously been an "open" system has now become "closed" system.
  
  It has become a "closed" system because hot water can no longer expand back into the municipal supply, and as a result, during periods when hot water is not being used, the system pressure rapidly increases until the pressure relief valve (PRV) is activated, releasing the excess water and pressure. In a typical situation, the PRV will activate two or three times a day, wasting hot water and causing premature failure of the valve, as it is only designed to activate in emergencies.
  
  The constant over-pressurization as the result of thermal expansion creates other problems as well, such as leaking ball seals and valve stems. The most critical hazard is the potential collapse of the center flue in a gas fired water heater, allowing lethal carbon monoxide fumes to leak into the residential environment.”

Quick. Call a plumber!