Water rules

[Athy]

11 hours ago, dor said:

drinking water delivery system.
 

Or "tap" as it is known.

 

God bless bureaucrats.

 

Surely such extreme precautions are advisable only if one drinks water from the boat's water tank, which most boaters probably never do

[MtB]

9 minutes ago, Athy said:

Surely such extreme precautions are advisable only if one drinks water from the boat's water tank, which most boaters probably never do

 

I'd say most boaters drink from their water tanks. I certainly do. 

 

 

[Athy]

Just now, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

I'd say most boaters drink from their water tanks. I certainly do. 

 

 

Interesting. Neither of us can prove it one way or the other - but, mooring near a Water Delivery System as we do, we see plenty of people filling bottles with water to take back to their boats. I assume they're for drinking water.

[Chewbacka]

4 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

I'd say most boaters drink from their water tanks. I certainly do. 

 

 

So do i

[MtB]

2 minutes ago, Athy said:

Interesting. Neither of us can prove it one way or the other - but, mooring near a Water Delivery System as we do, we see plenty of people filling bottles with water to take back to their boats. I assume they're for drinking water.

 

I see this too. Mostly liveaboards who have run out of water and are taking water to the boat, rather than the other way around. 

 

 

 

[dor]

Always drank the water from the tank, even in my old boat with integral tank lined with rusticles (never spotted anything actually swimming in there).

Up here I've not noticed many people filling bottles from the tap. Maybe boaters up north are built of stronger stuff than soft southerners...

[MtB]

Mebbe I should explain. A trip to the winding 'ole, back to the tap to fill up, wind again then back to the mooring involves four lock passages and takes around four hours here. So some here prefer to use a wheelbarrow and water bottles as its far quicker. 

Edited December 21, 2019 by Mike the Boilerman

[Chewbacka]

2 hours ago, Boater Sam said:

Nothing new at all, its all been a requirement for a long time. Double check valves. Supply break tanks would lead to very low pressures and long filling times,,,,,, giving more time for permeation and contamination. And storage tanks need periodic sterilization to combat Legionella. 

I see that there is no mention of food quality approved hoses being used rather than garden hosepipes.

In effect the law does as it states “which
require marina operators and users to ensure that
water supplies within the premises are adequately
safeguarded against contamination”

 

Therefore a hose that leaches out noxious substances would not comply.  So the only way a boater can demonstrate compliance is to use a food grade hose.

 

More interestingly, the best practice requires the hose not to lie on the ground and as the tap is usually at the far side of the towpath means the hose will be a foot or so above the ground.  This will be a trip hazard, leaving boaters to be sued by joggers tripping over.......   A far greater risk of harm than a theoretical risk of contamination diffusing through the pipe for the time lying across the path.

[Athy]

11 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

I see this too. Mostly liveaboards who have run out of water and are taking water to the boat, rather than the other way around. 

 

 

 

Yes, they tend to use big ten-gallon (or so) containers for that purpose. If I see a chap filling a couple of empty Coke bottles at the WDS I suspect that he's not going to pour their contents into his tank.

[ditchcrawler]

24 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

I'd say most boaters drink from their water tanks. I certainly do. 

 

 

Same here, but some people refill single use 5lt containers, I often wonder how they keep them clean

 

[mrsmelly]

20 minutes ago, Chewbacka said:

So do i

As do I and always have.

[ditchcrawler]

10 minutes ago, Chewbacka said:

In effect the law does as it states “which
require marina operators and users to ensure that
water supplies within the premises are adequately
safeguarded against contamination”

 

Therefore a hose that leaches out noxious substances would not comply.  So the only way a boater can demonstrate compliance is to use a food grade hose.

 

More interestingly, the best practice requires the hose not to lie on the ground and as the tap is usually at the far side of the towpath means the hose will be a foot or so above the ground.  This will be a trip hazard, leaving boaters to be sued by joggers tripping over.......   A far greater risk of harm than a theoretical risk of contamination diffusing through the pipe for the time lying across the path.

See the pretty diagram in the earlier post of a contraption like they used for filling the tanks of steam railway engines  

[Capt Ahab]

1 hour ago, David Mack said:

This is "best practice" not "rules".

 

I'm sure most water point taps are already fitted with double check valves, and most boaters already follow reasonable practices to keep their hoses clean etc. Those who don't are only endangering their own health and there is virtually no risk of contaminating the public water supply.

 

And how are you supposed to run your hose from the tap to the boat without it lying on the ground?

Spot on - its the on the ground bit I clocked. That means all the taps need to be moved to the water side of the towpath for starters.

[MtB]

15 minutes ago, Chewbacka said:

In effect the law does as it states “which
require marina operators and users to ensure that
water supplies within the premises are adequately
safeguarded against contamination”

 

Therefore a hose that leaches out noxious substances would not comply. <snip>

 

No, I'd say you have misinterpreted.

 

Virtually all mention of 'contamination' in the water regs means back-contamination of the public water supply, not contamination of the downstream user's own water. 

 

That reg I suspect, means the water supply in the pipework in the premises must be adequately protected from ever returning back into the public water main. 

 

 

[peterboat]

I drink water from the watertank, and i have a food grade hosepipe for filling the boat. Its fastened to the fence behind the all the bushes I still leave it turned on for a minute or so in the winter, and I water the garden first in the summer

[Keeping Up]

42 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

I'd say most boaters drink from their water tanks. I certainly do. 

 

 

Me too. And most other boaters.

[ditchcrawler]

I just set a poll up so lets see how it pans out

 

[Alan de Enfield]

1 hour ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

I'd say most boaters drink from their water tanks. I certainly do. 

 

 

I (we) don't.

10 litre container lasts us a couple of days.

[Mike Todd]

12 hours ago, Cheshire cat said:

Presumably it was this kind of sabre rattling that started C&RT changing all the waterpoints to those stainless ones and withdrawing the hoses from Elsan points

I did notice on the Foxes recent video about emptying elsan cassettes that the place they used had a hose attached to the tap.

 

OTOH, I had thought that it was subsequent to starting on the above programme of replacement that the NRV with a backflow relief facility was an acceptable provision with a hose attached. Since, without the hose, users tend to put the inlet/outlet pipe over the tap end, (I'm not sure about the overall situation. Of course the concern would not exist of sanitation units were supplied with non-potable water in the fist place.

[ditchcrawler]

6 minutes ago, Mike Todd said:

I did notice on the Foxes recent video about emptying elsan cassettes that the place they used had a hose attached to the tap.

 

OTOH, I had thought that it was subsequent to starting on the above programme of replacement that the NRV with a backflow relief facility was an acceptable provision with a hose attached. Since, without the hose, users tend to put the inlet/outlet pipe over the tap end, (I'm not sure about the overall situation. Of course the concern would not exist of sanitation units were supplied with non-potable water in the fist place.

Most of the CRT ones I have seen the taps are fitted with an adapter that actually has a gap in it. Similar to this  

[WotEver]

3 hours ago, mrsmelly said:

As do I and always have.

And we did. 

2 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:

I just set a poll up so lets see how it pans out

I’ll see if I can find it. A link might be useful. 

[ditchcrawler]

57 minutes ago, WotEver said:

And we did. 

I’ll see if I can find it. A link might be useful. 

 

[WotEver]

Ta

[Mike Todd]

3 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:

Most of the CRT ones I have seen the taps are fitted with an adapter that actually has a gap in it. Similar to this  

Thanks for the pic - that was what I was trying to describe in NRV with a backflow relief facility 

[ditchcrawler]

1 minute ago, Mike Todd said:

Thanks for the pic - that was what I was trying to describe in NRV with a backflow relief facility 

It took a bit of finding, you should see the price