If you were like many facilities, you removed water fountains and bottle filling stations from service or discouraged their use due to the COVID pandemic. As facilities restart these drinking water outlets they should ensure water meets standard potability requirements before allowing them back into service. During the shutdown, these outlets became dead-legs in the system leaving stagnant water in both the pipes leading to the fountain and any internal lines/components within the fountain. Prolonged stagnation may have allowed biofilms to grow and/or excessive corrosion, which could release high levels of bacteria, lead and copper if not flushed properly. As guidance to facilities restarting drinking fountains and bottle filling stations, Trusted Water has written a simple, step-by-step procedure for ensuring water is potable (i.e. safe to drink) before allowing these outlets back into service. Our restarting procedure also supports infection prevention strategies outlined in healthcare water management programs that meet CMS requirements for waterborne pathogen risk reduction.
You can download this Water Fountain Restart and Potability procedure below. If you have any questions regarding this procedure or would like assistance with the potability testing, please contact Trusted Water at (303) 709-8719.