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PUB reviews proposed backflow ordinance update, staff cite safety risks and device changes
Summary
City staff presented proposed updates to Denton’s cross‑connection control and backflow ordinance, focusing on nonresidential sites: requiring testable assemblies, banning non‑testable atmospheric vacuum breakers, expanding inspection access, and clarifying enforcement; staff gave differing dates for council consideration and proposed an effective date if adopted.
City staff presented a work‑session briefing Feb. 9 to the Denton Public Utilities Board on proposed updates to the city’s cross‑connection control and backflow ordinance, saying changes are intended to strengthen protections for the drinking‑water distribution system and clarify enforcement.
Michael Hunter, reclaimed water and cross‑connection control manager for water utilities, told the board the program — established in 1997 — currently monitors just over 6,000 commercial backflow assemblies and adds roughly 600 annually. "A backflow is in its simplest form when water flows in the opposite direction of normal flow," Hunter said, describing the risk that contaminated water can be drawn from a customer site back into the distribution main.
Hunter cited a 2024 backflow event in Grand Prairie that forced a "do not use" water notice as an example of the potential public‑health impact. He explained that in that incident the fire department…
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