Canada has published the final version of it’s standard for drinking water treatment systems (B483.1-07) and it is now available for purchase from the Canadian Standards Association (CSA).
Standard B483 was issued in March 2007 and published in April 2007. The guidance covers drinking water treatment systems intended to reduce or inactivate harmful substances, including point-of-use (POU) or point-of-entry (POE) plumbed systems; and (b) POU non-plumbed systems.
The standard was one of many issues covered during the Water Sciences & Government Relations Committee meeting during the WQA Aquatech USA convention in March 2007. It was reported that although the regulation will not be included in the Canadian National Plumbing Code until 2010, the standard may be adopted by provinces at any time. Canadian provinces are each in charge of their own water quality regulations, and they may choose to adopt B483 in whole or in part.
B483 essentially comprises the NSF/ANSI standards plus mechanical provisions to bring it in line with requirements of the Canadian Plumbing Code CSA 125/ASME 112 for similar components. The mechanical provisions relate to fittings components such as faucets, valves, diverters, tubing, etc., and involve certain additional tests that would be required, such as life cycle on/off testing, quality of coating finishes, and corrosion resistance, where applicable.
The products most affected are those that currently do not fall under any of the NSF/ANSI standards.
Water treatment industry members did have a voice in the creation of the standard. Staff and various members of the Water Quality Association (WQA) served on the Technical Committee.
According to committee member Joseph F. Harrison, CWS-VI, PE, "One important provision that we were successful in influencing and maintaining is in Section 4.1.1 which says that drinking water treatment systems and components shall comply with the materials safety and structural integrity parts of the NSF/ANSI standards. Additionally, POU systems need to comply with health-related contaminant reduction performance requirements in the NSF standards. It was realized that POE systems are too customized to enable system or performance certifications. This standard does not pertain to aesthetic contaminant reduction performance," he said.
Source: WQA
