10NYCRR5-1.30 to 1.33

The supplier of water shall provide such treatment as necessary to deliver to the consumer a water conforming to the requirements of this section and determined using an approved method with method modifications as listed in Tables in section 5-1.52 of this Subpart, and by an approved laboratory as described in section 5-1.74 of this Subpart.

(a) Minimum treatment for a ground water source shall be disinfection by chlorination or other microbial contaminant treatment methods acceptable to the State in accordance with the provisions of section 5-1.22 of this Subpart. If chemical disinfection is used, the disinfectant residual concentration must be maintained at all times and under no circumstances shall be less than the required concentration for more than four hours. Unless other corrective action is approved by the State, any ground water source where fecal contamination has been observed, or where a significant deficiency may be causing or has the potential to cause the introduction of contamination into the water delivered to customers, must be treated to remove or inactivate 99.99% (4-log) of viruses. Continuous monitoring of active microbial treatment processes is required, except as provided in section 51.52 table 15 of this Subpart.

(b) Minimum treatment for surface water sources or ground water sources directly influenced by surface water shall be filtration and disinfection techniques, approved by the State in accordance with section 5-1.22 of this Subpart, capable of at least 99 percent removal of Cryptosporidium oocysts, 99.9 percent removal and/or inactivation of Giardia lamblia cysts, and 99.99 percent removal and/or inactivation of viruses, between a point where the raw water is no longer subject to recontamination by surface water runoff and a point downstream before or at the first consumer. Compliance with this treatment technique is required for surface water sources or within 18 months after ground water sources are determined to be directly influenced by surface water, unless the department determines that the supplier of water can meet specific avoidance criteria as defined in subdivision (c) of this section. Required performance monitoring shall be conducted in accordance with section 5-1.52 Table 10A of this Subpart. Compliance with these treatment technique requirements shall also include:

(c) A public water system that uses a surface water source or a ground water source directly influenced by surface water which fails to comply with any of the following avoidance criteria shall develop and submit to the State, within three months of such failure to comply, a written plan for installing filtration and disinfection. Also, filtration and disinfection shall be installed, in accordance with subdivision (b) of this section, within 18 months of such failure to comply.

(1) Raw water fecal coliform concentrations must be equal to or less than 20 colonies per 100 milliliters or total coliform concentration must be equal to or less than 100 colonies per 100 milliliters in at least 90 percent of measurements made over the previous six months that the system was in operation. Monitoring shall be conducted in accordance with section 5-1.52 table 11A of this Subpart. If both fecal and total coliform analyses are performed, the fecal coliform results will take precedence.

(2) Raw water turbidity levels must not exceed five nephelometric turbidity units unless the department determines that the turbidity was caused by an unusual and unpredictable event. No more than two such events in the previous 12 months or no more than five events in the previous 120 months that the system was in operation are allowed. An event means a series of consecutive days during which at least one turbidity measurement each day exceeds five nephelometric turbidity units. Monitoring is to be conducted in accordance with section 5-1.52 table 10A of this Subpart.

(3) Disinfection must be sufficient to ensure at least 99.9 percent inactivation of Giardia lamblia cysts, 99.99 percent inactivation of viruses, and 99 or 99.9 percent inactivation of Cryptosporidium (per section 5-1.83(c)(2) of this Subpart), between a point where the raw water is no longer subject to recontamination by surface water runoff and a point downstream before or at the first consumer. Actual CT values must be equal to or greater than the required values found in section 5-1.52 Tables 14A through 14I of this Subpart, except for one day in each month that the system served water to the public, or except where the State determines that an additional failure in one month in the previous twelve months was caused by circumstances that were unusual and unpredictable. The supplier of water must calculate the CT values of the system for each day the system is in operation to document satisfactory disinfection. The necessary parameters and related monitoring frequencies to conduct this evaluation include:

(i) temperature of the disinfected water measured at least once per day at each residual disinfectant concentration sampling point;

(ii) pH of the disinfected water, measured at least once per day at each chlorine residual disinfectant concentration sampling point by systems using chlorine;

(iii) the disinfectant contact time (T), determined daily during peak hourly flow; and

(iv) the residual disinfectant concentration (C), before or at the first customer, measured daily during peak hourly flow.

(4) The disinfection system must have redundant components to ensure continuous disinfection. Auxiliary power with automatic start and alarm is required at all disinfection facilities where a power outage would result in a loss or reduction in the ability of the system to maintain a disinfection concentration as required by this Subpart.

(5) For systems using chlorine, the free chlorine residual disinfection concentration in the water entering the distribution system must be at least 0.2 milligrams per liter and may not be less than the required minimum concentration for compliance for more than four hours, unless the State determines that any such failure was caused by circumstances that were unusual and unpredictable. Systems using other chemical disinfectants shall maintain residual disinfection levels entering the distribution system comparable to requirements for systems using chlorination. Continuous monitoring is required except as provided in section 5-1.52 table 15 of this Subpart.

(6) The disinfection residuals or the heterotrophic plate count results in the water in the distribution system must meet the requirements outlined in subdivision (g) of this section and section 5-1.52 table 11 of this Subpart unless the State determines that the failure to meet the requirements was not caused by a deficiency in the treatment of the source water.

(7) The watershed control program must provide natural or man made barriers to the occurrence, transport and/or survival of Cryptosporidium oocysts, Giardia lamblia cysts and viruses. The watershed control program must include, but is not limited to the following:

(i) ownership or protective controls of the watershed, except where the supplier of water submits written justification to show that the travel time of the water to the intake is greater than 60 days under all but emergency conditions. Protective controls can include written agreements with landowners within the watershed but must include as a minimum the absence of any bathing beach as defined in Part 6-2 of this Title, except for a bathing beach owned and/or maintained by an individual for use by the individual's family or friends;

(ii) no new sewage discharges to any watercourse shall be allowed where the time of travel from the point of discharge to the intake is 60 days or less. Existing sewage discharges with a current State Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (SPDES) permit issued by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, where the time of travel from the point of discharge to the intake is 60 days or less, shall, as a minimum, have secondary treatment followed by sand filtration and disinfection at facilities designed to achieve 99.9 percent removal and/or inactivation of Giardia lamblia cysts and 99.99 percent removal and/or inactivation of viruses by June 29, 1993. Existing or new sewage discharges with a SPDES permit issued by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, where the time of travel from the point of discharge to the intake is greater than 60 days, shall, as a minimum, have secondary treatment followed by sand filtration and disinfection at facilities designed to achieve 99.9 percent removal and/or inactivation of Giardia lamblia cysts and 99.99 percent removal and/or inactivation of viruses by June 29, 1993 or a later date set forth in a plan submitted to the commissioner and approved using the criteria for the long term plan as described in section 5-1.30(c)(7)(vii) of this Subpart. The sewage treatment facilities required herein shall be operated in conformance with their design specifications and the conditions of their SPDES permit;

(iii) watershed rules and regulations promulgated and enforced in accordance with Title I of Article 11 of the Public Health Law; including as a minimum prohibition or controls on waste discharges which contain or potentially may contain Cryptosporidium oocysts, Giardia lamblia cysts and/or viruses;

(iv) identification and evaluation of pertinent geological, hydrological and physical characteristics or features and potential conditions or activities which may influence water quality;

(v) a monitoring and surveillance program to assess water quality and water quantity trends;

(vi) an annual report submitted by the supplier of water to the department describing watershed activities, especially activities that affect water quality, identifying new and existing water quality concerns and remediation efforts taken and any other reports required pursuant to adopted watershed rules and regulations. The annual report must be submitted to the department no later than the 10th of October of each year; and

(vii) a long term plan for the implementation of the watershed control program, including a description of the commitment of human and financial resources for such program shall be submitted to the commissioner for approval from systems that serve more than 100,000 persons, obtain water from a watershed or watersheds that involve multiple political subdivisions and own less than 25 percent of the land in the watershed. The approval shall be based on the exercise of a reasonable discretion by the commissioner in reviewing and accepting the proposed levels of human and fiscal resources to be committed for successful implementation of the plan, measured by projected cost of the administration, inspection, enforcement, land acquisition, sewage treatment plant upgrading and other activities and/or services related to such watershed control program, including the resolution of inherent water quality and quantity questions and the reliability of the method of funding. Failure to obtain the approval of the long term plan or failure to secure the required human or financial resources will result in a requirement to provide filtration, in accordance with the provisions of this Subpart. The approval of the long-term plan shall be for a period of ten years, subject to further review and approval for successive ten-year periods. Notwithstanding any approval granted pursuant hereto, if Federal or State law or regulation shall henceforth unconditionally mandate filtration of surface water sources, then any such approvals shall forthwith cease and terminate with filtration thereafter to be provided, in accordance with the provisions of this Subpart, when reasonably feasible.

(8) The public water system must not have been identified as a source of a waterborne disease outbreak since 1980.

(9) The public water system shall comply with the trihalomethane, haloacetic acid, bromate, and chlorite maximum contaminant levels and the maximum residual disinfectant levels in accordance with section 5-1.52 of this Subpart.

(10) The public water system must not exceed a total coliform treatment technique trigger in accordance with section 5-1.52 of this Subpart in 11 months of the 12 previous months that the system served water to the public on an ongoing basis, unless the State determines that failure to meet this requirement was not caused by a deficiency in treatment of the source water.

(d) Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in sections 5-1.12, 5-1.23, 5-1.51, or 5-1.77 of this Subpart, if the public water system fails to comply with the treatment technique and/or the monitoring requirements of subdivisions (a), (b), (c) or (g) of this section, fails to install the filtration and/or disinfection treatment required by this section or fails to comply with the avoidance criteria requirements contained in subdivision 5-1.30(c) of this section, the system violates this Subpart and shall make State and public notification, including any required mandatory health effects language. Pursuant to subdivision (c) of this section, if at any time the raw water turbidity exceeds five nephelometric turbidity units, the system shall consult with the State within 24 hours of learning of the exceedance. Based on this consultation, the State may determine that the exceedance constitutes a public health hazard, as found in paragraph (4) of subdivision 5-1.1(bz)(4) of this Subpart, which requires a Tier 1 notification. When consultation does not take place within the 24 hour period, the water system must distribute a Tier 1 notification no later than 48 hours after the system learns of the violation. Ground water systems that are required to provide 4-log virus treatment, surface water systems and Ground Water Under the Direct Influence of surface water (GWUDI) systems that use chemical disinfection must notify the State whenever residual disinfectant levels in the water entering the distribution system are less than the specified concentration pursuant to subdivisions (b) and (c) of this section. Any water system that uses chemical disinfection must make State notification whenever disinfectant residual levels entering the distribution system are not restored within four hours.

(e) The State may grant a waiver, on the submission of a written application, renewable for a period of up to three years, to the disinfection rule established by this section for a ground water source if:

(f) The State may waive the requirements of paragraphs (3) through (6) of subdivision (e) of this section for a ground water source at a noncommunity water system or a community water system serving fewer than 50 dwelling units, based on periodic evaluation of a sanitary survey and the geology of the area; the chemical characteristics of the water; the location, construction and protection of the ground water source; and the method of water storage and distribution.

(g) When a chlorine-based chemical disinfectant is used, the residual disinfectant concentration in the distribution system, measured as free or combined chlorine shall be maintained at detectable concentrations at representative points in the distribution system, in accordance with the monitoring requirements in section 5-1.52 Table 11 of this Subpart. No more than five percent of the free chlorine residual samples shall be undetectable in any two consecutive months that the system serves water to the public. Chlorine residual or heterotrophic bacteria analyses shall be performed in accordance with section 5-1.52 table 11 of this Subpart. Monitoring for heterotrophic bacteria may be substituted for free chlorine residuals. A heterotrophic plate count result equal to or less than 500 colonies per milliliter is considered to be equivalent to a measurable free chlorine residual.

5-1.31 Cross connection control. (a) The supplier of water shall implement a service protection program (also known as containment) which includes the following:

(b) A certified backflow prevention device tester shall meet the following requirements:

(1) Initial certification and renewal requirements. Initial and/or renewal certifications for a certified backflow prevention device tester will be issued by a department-approved entity, when the applicant provides proof of satisfactory completion of a department-approved certified backflow prevention training course. The certification shall be valid for a period of three years.

(2) Conditions of certification.

(i) Upon issuance of a certification by a department-approved entity, the tester shall inform the department and the department-approved entity, within 30 days, of any changes in address or employment.

(ii) The department has the authority to require any individual applying for certification or renewal certification as a certified backflow prevention device tester or any certified backflow prevention device tester to take a written, oral and/or practical skills validated examination, if the department deems such examination to be reasonably necessary to determine the applicant’s qualifications or to determine the certified tester’s knowledge, skills, ability and judgment. The results of the examination may be the sole basis for approval, disapproval or suspension of such certification or the basis for additional requirements, deemed appropriate by the department, before certification will be issued or reinstated.

(3) Recertification requirements.

(i) An individual that allows his or her certification renewal to lapse after the expiration date is no longer certified to test applicable protective devices as outlined in this Subpart. If the individual meets the requirements outlined in this subdivision, within one year of the expiration date, the certification will be reinstated with a renewal period starting upon the date of expiration of the original certification and ending three years later.

(ii) An individual that allows his or her certification renewal to lapse for more than one year after the expiration date will be required to repeat the initial certification requirements set forth in subdivision (b)(1) of this section.

Upon notice and opportunity for a hearing, a tester’s certification may be suspended or revoked. Revocation or suspension may be based on, but not limited to, fraud or misrepresentation by the certified tester; gross incompetence or gross negligence on a particular occasion; or negligence or incompetence on more than one occasion. Examples of such conduct include, but are not limited to:

(d) The supplier of water may not allow a user to establish a separate source of water. However, if a user justifies the need for a separate source of water, the supplier of water shall protect the public water system from such separate source of water by ensuring that such source does not pose a hazard in the following manner:

(e) All users of a public water system shall prevent cross-connections between the potable water piping system and any other piping system within the premises by installing internal protection in accordance with the New York State Uniform Fire Prevention and Building Code and/or the local plumbing and building codes.

(f) Any installation, service, maintenance, testing, repair or modification of a protective device shall be performed in accordance with the provisions of any relevant county, city, town or village plumbing code. All individuals who perform testing of protective devices shall be certified in accordance with subdivision (b) of this section.

Finished water storage facilities which deliver water to the user without later treatment shall be covered, or the water from an uncovered finished water storage facility shall be continuously treated to achieve inactivation or removal of at least 99.99 percent virus, 99.9 percent Giardia lamblia, and 99 percent Cryptosporidium in a manner approved by the State, in accordance with section 5-1.22 (b) of this Subpart, before being discharged to the distribution system.

(a) All community water systems that supply drinking water to more than 3,300 people shall submit a water supply emergency plan to the State. The plan shall identify and outline the steps necessary to ensure that potable water is available during all phases of a water supply emergency.

(c) An all-hazard vulnerability analysis, including an analysis of vulnerability to terrorist attack and cyber attack, shall be performed on all components of the water system. System components include but are not limited to: the source or sources of water supply; water treatment plants; disinfection stations; pipes and valves; storage tanks; and system operations and management. The system shall take whatever steps are necessary to ensure that potable water can be and is available during a water supply emergency.

(d) Before the final submission of the water supply emergency plan to the State, the system shall publish a notice in a newspaper of general circulation in the area served by the community water system stating that the proposed water supply emergency plan is available for review and comment. The notice shall be printed at least once in each of two successive weeks. Public comment shall be accepted for at least fourteen days following the date of first publication. All public comment shall be submitted with the water supply emergency plan to the State.

(e) The water supply emergency plan shall be submitted to the State for review at least once every five years and within thirty days after major water facility infrastructure changes have been made. The system shall keep the emergency plan up to date, and shall provide updated communication and notification information to the State by December thirty-first of each year.

(f) Community water systems that supply drinking water to 3,300 or fewer people, non-transient noncommunity water systems, and noncommunity water systems may be required to prepare, update and submit to the State, a written water supply emergency plan for providing potable water during a water supply emergency.

(g) If more than one system is responsible for providing potable water to a community water system, the water supply emergency plan shall be prepared and submitted jointly by the systems.

(h) Information shall be exempt from public disclosure for public review and comment if it is determined by the water supplier that the information will pose a security risk to the operation of the water system. Upon the Commissioner’s request, the system shall provide a copy of the exempt information and justification for why said information should not be subject to public review and comment. A person who, without authorization, discloses any such assessment or information to another person who has not been authorized to receive such assessment or information shall be subject to criminal penalties pursuant to section 1125 of the Public Health Law.