Here's a post that will have my anti-bureaucracy and landlord friends chuckling with "I told you so..."
So we're selling our house (anyone want to live in prestigious East Kingfield?). Part of the selling process is getting a Truth-In-Housing inspection. Our abode - lovingly upgraded from the rental property it was when we bought it - passed with flying colors...except for the dreaded "back-flow preventer." These small pieces of shrapnel apparently keep water from flowing into the city's water system if somehow there is negative pressure. We need three of them. Two are $5 parts that screw on our exterior hose faucet and the one in our laundry tub. The third is a bit more problematic...it goes on the water supply to our boiler. That means cutting copper pipe, installing the thing, adding a second shut-off valve...in other words, a plumber and a permit. Since our plumbing was upgraded three years ago, I asked the inspector what the deal was. "New requirement as of June 1," he explained. "It's a silly thing...you'd probably only need one if a car hit the fire hydrant outside AND your boiler water supply was turned on...then the negative pressure might suck the water out of your radiators into the city system." Anyone with a boiler knows how infrequently they add water to their system. Our water supply has probably been on for a grand total of five minutes in the 8 years we've owned the house. The odds of negative pressure occurring WHILE the water supply is on roughly match the chances of winning the Powerball. So, my question: why was this requirement added? What was the justification? As always, I'll accede to superior info, but right now, this looks like one silly regulation. David Brauer King Field _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
