Water Tapping Services: The Importance of Backflow Prevention

October 26, 2018

The operational environment in today's trench is different, but that's all part-and-parcel of the industry. On Monday, a ground channel is carrying high-voltage armoured electrical cables. By Friday, that trench is backfilled, and now the work has exposed a mains water line. About to carry out a water tapping service, the work stops while the project foreman considers backflow protection strategies.

What is Backflow Protection?

Clearly, just by reading out those two words, danger is being created by a reversal in the normal flow direction of the mains water. Now, while that phenomenon may not sound particularly dangerous, remember this line is held at high pressures. If the water does reverse direction, the pressure hits network sections that aren't designed to handle such undesirable events. Worse still, flow reversals can suck contaminants into lines that are designated as consumable water supplies. That's an unacceptable hazard, which can be addressed by installing backflow protection devices. Of course, back at the trench, where the water tapping service is about to take place, matters are a little different.

Protecting Water Tapping Services

A concrete plinth is taking shape at some predetermined point, just alongside the exposed ground channel. The pipes are taking a 90-degree turn and exiting the ground. There are backflow protection valves, thick flanges, and meters being installed on the cured concrete. Working with the city, the pipe installation contractors perform their water tapping services while the trenching company furnishes a stopover point in the channel's route. Provided for local residences or for commercial properties, the valves, fittings, and meters mounted on this pipe interrupter act as a kind of network buffer, one that prevents system wide backflow and back-siphonage.

The Importance of Backflow Protection

Think of this buried infrastructural layer. There's high-pressure water pipes, waste disposal lines, potable water, and who knows how many threads of fluid, all of which are connected together in some manner. Backpressure protection equipment stops those high-pressure city lines from impacting branch lines and smaller pipe spurs. Without this fitting, hazardous contaminants could be siphoned into a fresh water pipe. Without it, high-pressure fluids could damage low-pressure seals and fittings. Working with a trenching company, water tapping services install these buffering mechanisms according to a best engineering practices approach, so every commercial and residential property has an in-line buffer ready to reject any pressure spike and every back-siphoned fluid assault.

Granted, infrastructural water networks exhibit high degrees of connectivity, from water mains to water tank and then onwards to one of a thousand ordinary homes and businesses. However, we must have backflow protection points in place, for they perform an essential role as stream buffering mechanisms.

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