California Department of Health Services director Sandra Shewry met with a Water Quality Association (WQA) delegation and agreed to very significant changes in the Drinking Water Device Certification program.
She has ordered the Department to set up procedures to accept American National Standards Institute (ANSI) accredited product certifications in lieu of the review process that the Department now goes through. Initially, they will accept WQA certifications for Standard 53 (water filtration) and Standard 44 (softeners). Reverse osmosis units will continue to be handled the same as they are now, however, Shewry indicated that they are willing to accept certifications from ANSI-accredited programs if WQA can come to an agreement with the Department on some issues they have concerning data transfer and testing procedures.
The California Department of Health Services must now develop its procedures, and it has promised to send the testing agencies a letter of application within 60 days. After that, WQA, NSF International and others will apply to handle product submissions.
Source: WQA
