As the need to improve drinking water continues to grow because of aging infrastructure and consumer demands for higher water purity, industry manufacturers continue to innovate. However, product safety and performance standards have not kept pace, leaving gaps in the plumbing codes. The Uniform Plumbing Code® (UPC), International Plumbing Code® (IPC), International Residential Code® (IRC), state plumbing codes, and even local plumbing codes have very little language on the requirements for products that treat drinking water. The model codes currently contain similar language covering several product types in which standards have been developed, but many products lack standards or code language. For example, UPC Section 611.0 covers drinking water treatment units, but the code only covers drinking water treatment units addressed in the following standards:
- NSF/ANSI 42, Drinking Water Treatment Units – Aesthetic Effects
- NSF/ANSI 44, Residential Cation Exchange Water Softeners
- NSF/ANSI 53, Drinking Water Treatment Units – Health Effects
- NSF/ANSI 55, Ultraviolet Microbiological Water Treatment Systems
- NSF/ANSI 58, Reverse Osmosis Drinking Water Treatment Systems
- NSF/ANSI 62, Drinking Water Distillation Systems
Model codes cover the essential requirements for safe installation, but a lack of new product standards being develop has not allowed the codes to cover the large variety of water treatment equipment that exist today. As an example, the UPC contains the code language below to cover water treatment equipment. The IPC and IRC contain similar language.
611.0 Drinking Water Treatment Units.
611.1 Application. Drinking water treatment units shall comply with NSF 42 or NSF 53. Water softeners shall comply with NSF 44. Ultraviolet water treatment systems shall comply with NSF 55. Reverse osmosis drinking water treatment systems shall comply with NSF 58. Drinking water distillation systems shall comply with NSF 62.
611.2 Air Gap Discharge. Discharge from drinking water treatment units shall enter the drainage system through an air gap in accordance with Table 603.3.1 or an air gap device in accordance with Table 603.2, NSF 58, or IAPMO PS 65.
611.3 Connection Tubing. The tubing to and from drinking water treatment units shall be of a size and material as recommended by the manufacturer. The tubing shall comply with the requirements of NSF 14, NSF 42, NSF 44, NSF 53, NSF 55, NSF 58, NSF 62 or the appropriate material standards referenced in Table 1701.1.
611.4 Sizing of Residential Softeners. Residential-use water softeners shall be sized in accordance with Table 611.4.
The standards referenced above leave out numerous products being used today to improve drinking water in homes and businesses. For example, the city of Los Angeles recently contacted ASSE International to discuss which standard covers the requirements of a water softener that has an inlet greater than 1¼ inches. We informed them that at this time no standard exits, but soon ASSE 1087, Performance Requirements for Commercial and Food Service Water Treatment, will be available to evaluate large water softeners. Hundreds of thousands of commercial water softeners are installed each year throughout the U.S. but lack the ability to be tested and certified to an American National health and safety standard.
ASSE’s Water Systems program is working hard to create standards that fill technology and code gaps that exists today. Some examples: ASSE staff worked with IAPMO to create a health and safety standard that covers products that make scale reduction claims, IAPMO/ANSI Z601, Scale Reduction Devices. This standard took over a decade to complete but is now available for codes to adopt. Now physical water treatment products and ion exchange softeners can be tested to the IAPMO/ANSI Z601 standard. ASSE 1087 in the final stages of development. This standard intends to close a big gap by covering all the commercial water treatment equipment not addressed by existing standards, such as water softeners with an inlet greater than 1¼ inches. ASSE International is also creating ASSE 1090, Performance Requirements for Drinking Water Treatment Devices Using Air as a Source. This standard will cover the health and safety testing requirements for products that intend to produce drinking water from atmospheric moisture. These are only some examples of how ASSE is expanding its list of product standards to cover water treatment.
Creating this new suite of standards is a perfect fit for our motto, “Prevention Rather Than Cure.” Allowing products that contact or treat drinking water to be installed without appropriate health and safety standards puts everyone at risk. As ASSE’s new standards become adopted into code, we continue to fulfill our goal of protecting public health and safety.
