Significance for owners of a large-scale plant for heating drinking water
What obligations do landlords have, for example?
Are you, as the owner of a large-scale plant for heating drinking water, affected by the alteration in the Drinking Water Ordinance? Here, you can find initial information on your obligations. You can receive precise, legally binding information from your relevant local health authority.
What you must do as the person responsible for a publicly or commercially used drinking water plant:
- Check whether your plant for heating drinking water is a large-scale plant according to the technical rule W551 of the DVGW (see: Definition of large-scale plant)
- Declare the drinking water plant to the relevant local health authority (You can find possible contents of this information here)
- Check the drinking water plants for legionella once a year through an accredited nationally listed laboratory – without being requested by the local health authority! The inspection intervals can be extended by the local health authority. However, among other things, the basis for this is that the findings from the last three years have been satisfactory.
- Written documentation of the inspection results
- Sending of the inspection results to the local health authority at least two weeks after the inspection
- Immediate notification to the relevant local health authority if the technical intervention value is reached or even exceeded (the commissioned laboratory can also deal with this)
- Instigation of the necessary measures against a legionella contamination if instructed by the local health authority. The basis for the assessment is the technical intervention value of 100 colony-forming units (CFU) per 100 milliliters of drinking water and a risk analysis and site inspection to be carried out by the owner if necessary.
If the specified obligations are neglected, this may even have legal consequences according to the German Federal Environment Agency:
"Anyone who neglects to inspect the drinking water for legionella (according to § 14 Section 3 TrinkwV), to notify the local health authority (according to §16 Section 1 TrinkwV) or to inform consumers when they have reached or exceeded a technical intervention value (according to § 21 Section 1 TrinkwV) is committing a regulatory offense (according to § 25TrinkwV (Number 4, 8a, 17)."
(Source: http://www.umweltdaten.de/publikationen/fpdf-l/3983.pdf)
Where can you find contacts for altering the Drinking Water Ordinance?
Display of the large-scale plant and information: to the relevant local health authority.
To the list of local health authorities in Germany...
Instigation of the legionella inspection: to accredited laboratories.
To the state lists of the accredited laboratories for drinking water inspections...
Facebook