Cerritos : Water Inspections Ordered

The Cerritos City Council has adopted an ordinance directing city workers to do something they have already been doing for more than a year under orders from the state. The council agreed to have water department workers annually inspect “back flow preventers,” mechanical devices designed to keep water used for non-drinking purposes from backing up in city lines and possibly contaminating the main water system.

County workers used to be responsible for the inspections, Public Services Director William J. Morris said, until state lawmakers agreed that the duty should be assumed by local water purveyors. Morris estimated that the inspections cost the city about $10,000 annually to check the several hundred mechanical devices in commercial and office buildings, industrial areas and city parks and parkways.