January’s Group meeting was held at Tacoma Public Utilities. Thank you Scott Hallenberg for hosting this month. The meeting was called to order at 10:05am by Chair Jeff Kobylk, introductions were made and those in attendance were: Bill Kuhlman Silver Lake Water & Sewer District, Scott Barr City of Monroe, Dale Baxmann Seattle Public Utilities, Jacob Bradley City of Lynnwood, Tim Cantwell Woodinville Water District, Jason Moe Batman Testing, Tyler Christian City of Monroe, Branden Clark City of DuPont Public Works, Debbie Crooks City of Kent, Andrew Piekarski Silver Lake Water & Sewer District, Fred Foreman City of Dupont, Jim Freeman Belfair Water District #1, Ursilla Ronscavage City of Bonney Lake, Vice Chair Brian Gumke Northshore Utility District, Webmaster Wednesday Smith City of Redmond, Secretary Katarina Hirai Silver Lake Water & Sewer District, Past Chair Mick Holte City of Renton, Chair Jeff Kobylk City of Edmonds, Treasurer Dennis McLaughlin Retired BAT and our extinguished guest Bill Bernier with Department of Health. Thank you Bill!
Bill gave a wonderful presentation on completing and submitting the ASR online, as is now required for all systems with connections greater than 1,000. The good news is there were no changes made to the ASR for this year from last year. Also, since the 2013 reporting period DOH has seen a 10% increase in both the number of CCSs in our State and in the protection of high cross connection hazard facilities with the largest increase seen in the Medical category (see chart). Even with this rise in protection, 448 systems reported being unprotected from 1,778 high cross connection hazard facilities last year and 8 systems reported not having a CCS. Bill emphasized the importance of reporting assembly test failures as last year the failure rate of the 304,162 (87%) Backflow Assemblies tested was 4%, which is low. If an assembly must be flushed in order to give a passing test, this constitutes a failure of the assembly and should be reported as such.
Bill reminded everyone to be on the look-out for his email that will be coming this month and contain not only the link to the ASR website, which can only be accessed through the link or by typing the address into the browser (it will not come up on a search engine), but also the DOH-assigned PIN for login. Bill stressed the importance of not having the same email address for both the CCS and the PWS Manager because if that email address is changed or becomes invalid, then that PWS will not receive crucial communications from DOH as most communication from DOH is now done through email instead of postal mail.
DOH made some improvements to the online system this year reducing the number of emails triggered when editing and saving the ASR. Emails will be sent when a PWS submits Contact Information, submits the ASR Forms
Package, or if the ASR Forms Package is Unsubmitted. A new Summary Data email will also be generated this year. DOH strongly encourages CCSs to provide comments on each ASR form. These comments could include information regarding explanation of data, goals/priorities for the next reporting year, accomplishments for the current reporting year, or changes in CCC Program status. These comments help not only DOH understand your ASR better, but also provides a record for the CCS to look back on to understand ASR entries.
A question was asked regarding DOH’s recommended protection for facilities or residences that have a grinder pump installed. Bill stated that if there was no potential cross connection from the water system to the pump, then no protection would be required. However, if there was a potential for the pump to be connected to the potable water system, then Premises Isolation with an RPBA is required. Another question was proposed on how high-hazard facilities were to be counted. Examples were: if you had 2 dental office in a building with only one connection to the PWS, then this would be counted as one dental office, not two; if there were several high-hazard facilities with only one connection to the PWS, then you would only count the facility with the highest hazard to the PWS. Bill encourages anyone with questions or struggles regarding the ASR to not hesitate to contact him; he is here to help.
A drawing was held for three portable cell phone charges and an oil painting by Dennis.
Congratulations to Branden Clark City of DuPont Public Works for winning Dennis’s painting.
At the end of the meeting, an idea was proposed to have the Seminar this year in the North end at perhaps Brightwater or a hotel in Everett since the BAT Forum will be in the South end at the Tacoma La Quinta. Mick Holte volunteered to contact Brightwater to see if their space would accommodate the needs of The Group Seminar.
The next meeting will be about Type II Assemblies at WETRC in Auburn at 10am. Remember to renew your membership dues for 2019 if you haven’t already; you can check your status here.
Hope to see you at the next meeting!
Katarina Hirai
2019 Group Secretary