City sends water survey to residents

Elgin-based Aqua Backflow, a company the city contracted with in 2017, sent notice of a new and mandatory digital survey to 6,000 Galesburg residents starting in mid-January.
Though the devices are often associated with commercial properties and large-scale items such as boilers, many Galesburg residents have backflow prevention devices for long household sprinkler systems, said Richard Nelson, water superintendent for the city.
Currently the city monitors slightly more than 1,000 backflow prevention devices in city limits, both commercial and residential, but Nelson expected that number would increase once Aqua Backflow collects this year’s surveys and sees if more residents need to obtain a device.
Aqua Backflow will release the survey to 6,000 more residents next year, to cover the total of 12,000 active water service customers in the city.
The latter company did monitor the backflow prevention devices in the city by making sure existing customers had their devices checked once per year by plumbers, to ensure the devices remained updated and in working condition.
“We always did the commercial accounts; that’s been something that they’ve done for years,” Nelson said.
“That’s what the (Illinois Environmental Protection Agency) started with, and then they moved into digital, so we have to survey the residential accounts now as well.” The IEPA requires the city to monitor the backflow prevention devices in town and checks every three years to make sure the municipality has done so.
Residents who received notice of the survey must complete it within 30 days.
Rebecca Susmarski: (309) 343-7181, ext.
261; rsusmarski@register-mail.com; @RSusmarski

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