Why the letter showed up
Somebody at your water department did not single you out. Ohio EPA’s cross-connection control rule, OAC Chapter 3745-95, requires every public water system in the state to run a backflow prevention program. The whole chapter was rewritten effective October 10, 2022, and the rewrite is specific about what the water department has to do.
Under rule 3745-95-03, the water supplier has to assess how each customer uses water, at minimum with a documented survey, and then do a “periodic on-site investigation of all premises at least every five years.” The rule also gives the supplier the right to enter any property it serves at reasonable times. So if a water department employee walked your building, or you got a cross-connection survey in the mail, that is the rule working as written.
The first five year cycle under the 2022 rewrite closes in late 2027. We are not going to tell you that is why your city picked this year, because no agency has said so. What we can tell you is what Jared Brown, our owner, is seeing in the field right now across Lake, Cuyahoga and Lorain counties.
“The local water departments are cracking down on the business owners and doing site visits and sending out notices to have their backflow tested.” Jared Brown, October 2026
If the notice came from Cleveland Water, their written Backflow Prevention Policies say it plainly. Cleveland Water “requires backflow prevention devices to be installed on all commercial water service connections,” and the customer “will be notified in writing when their device is due for testing.” Lake County Department of Utilities says customers “will be required to install and maintain an appropriate backflow prevention device at the meter” and have it “tested yearly” on its backflow prevention page.
What the rule asks of you
The rule calls you the “consumer,” defined in 3745-95-01 as “the owner or person in control of any premises.” If you own the building or run the business inside it, this is your responsibility, not the tenant’s and not the water department’s.
Rule 3745-95-06 spells out the obligations.
- The device gets an inspection and operational test at least once every twelve months, plus at installation and after any repair.
- The test is performed by a person approved by the supplier of water.
- The consumer pays for the test, the installation, and any repair or replacement.
- The consumer maintains the device and keeps the records. The water supplier keeps its own copy for five years.
None of this is new. The letters are.
Who is allowed to do the test
Not any plumber, and not your maintenance guy with a gauge kit.
Ohio law ORC 3703.21, effective April 2025, makes it illegal to install, test or repair a backflow device without a valid backflow technician certification from the Ohio Department of Commerce, with a civil penalty of up to $5,000 per day. Getting that certificate takes a 24 hour course with a hands-on exam and five years of qualifying trade experience under OAC Chapter 1301:3-7.
On top of the state certificate, most Northeast Ohio water systems want the tester registered with them. Cleveland Water requires “a valid state of Ohio certificate of competence” and has results submitted online through Backflow Solutions Inc. (BSI). Avon Lake and North Ridgeville say the same thing in different words on their program pages.
Our technicians hold the Ohio backflow certification, and we file the test report with your water department as part of the visit. You get a copy for your records. That is the whole backflow testing service in one sentence.
The deadline is on your letter
The state rule does not set a number of days. Your water department does, and it goes on the notice, so read the letter before you read anything else.
A few Northeast Ohio examples, so you know what the range looks like.
| Water system | What they publish |
|---|---|
| Avon Lake Regional Water | Notices go out in April. Test results due June 25. A $50 late penalty. Water may be suspended if results are not in by noon on July 9. |
| North Ridgeville | Test reports due June 15. All non-residential customers also owe a cross-connection survey by July 31. On-site audits every five years. |
| Cleveland Water | Written notice when the test is due. “If the results are not submitted, the customer’s water service may be interrupted.” |
| Lake County Utilities | Device required at the meter, tested yearly. No public deadline. Follow the date on your notice. |
The $50 late fee in Avon Lake is the least of it. The July 9 shutoff is the line that matters.
Avon Lake also prints one sentence every owner should take to heart. “Absence of notification does not void the inspection and testing requirement.” The letter went to the old property manager? Still due.
What happens if you ignore it
Rule 3745-95-08 is short and not friendly. After “reasonable notice,” the water supplier “shall deny or discontinue the water service” where a required device is missing, has not been tested, is not maintained, has been removed or bypassed, where an unprotected cross-connection exists, or where the owner refuses entry. Service “shall not be restored until the consumer has corrected or eliminated such conditions.”
Shall, not may. Once notice has gone out the water department has no discretion left, and a clerk who likes you cannot help.
For a restaurant or a medical office, a shutoff is a closed building until a certified tester gets there and the report gets filed.
If the tester says you have no backflow at all
This is the part catching a lot of Northeast Ohio owners off guard. Older buildings, and especially older fire sprinkler services, were often built without a containment backflow device at all. The water department sends a test notice, a tester shows up, and there is nothing to test.
“People are calling contractors and contractors are showing up and basically telling them they don’t have a backflow but they need one installed.” Jared Brown, October 2026
If that is where you are, read the second post in this series, Backflow Preventer Installation for Ohio Businesses. It covers domestic versus fire line devices, double check versus RPZ, why some of these go in a vault at the curb, and what the job actually looks like. Our installation page has the service details.
Fire sprinkler buildings have two tests, not one
If your building has a fire sprinkler system, the backflow on that fire line gets the water department’s annual test like any other device. It also gets a second test the water department never asks about.
NFPA 25, the inspection standard the Ohio Fire Code adopts, requires an annual forward flow test on every backflow in fire protection piping. The water department test proves the device stops water going backward. The forward flow test proves it lets enough water through, at the flow your sprinkler system was designed for, when there is a fire. A device can pass one and fail the other.
Fire inspectors look for the forward flow test on your annual sprinkler inspection report. Jared and the crew are seeing more of them ask for it, and more of them ask for a test connection on new backflow installs so the test can actually be done. The third post, Forward Flow Testing for Fire Sprinkler Backflows, explains what it is and how it is done.
What to do this week
- Find the deadline on the notice and put it on a calendar. If you cannot find the letter, call the water department and ask what is due and when.
- Find out whether the building has a device at all, on the domestic service and on the fire service if there is one. The riser room, the meter pit and the mechanical room are the places to look.
- Call a certified tester. We test domestic and fire line devices across Mentor, Cleveland, Willoughby, Painesville and the rest of Northeast Ohio, and we file the report with your water department before we leave.
- If the device fails, get it repaired and retested before the deadline. Most failures are a worn check valve or relief valve, same day work in most cases.
Step 2 is the one people skip.
Send us a photo of your notice and we will tell you what it needs. Call 440-664-3639 or use the form on this page.
