CHICAGO, IL, May 12, 2014 -- In light of a lack of current sustainability standards for drinking water treatment products -- aside from existing safety/performance standards -- the Water Quality Association (WQA) and the American Society of Plumbing Engineers (ASPE) have partnered to develop a suite of ANSI-approved regulations on consumer water contact products. The first two of the standards -- WQA/ASPE S-803: Sustainable Drinking Water Treatment Systems and WQA/ASPE S-802: Activated Carbon Media for Drinking Water Treatment Systems -- are available for public review at http://aspe.org/PublicReview.
WQA partnered with PE International Inc. to assemble a team of manufacturers, component suppliers, industry experts, and other key stakeholders to develop this series of voluntary sustainability standards for the water products industry, with the ultimate goals of providing meaningful product sustainability performance information to consumers and stakeholders and driving innovation and continual improvement in the sustainability performance of these products. As an ANSI-accredited standards development organization (SDO), ASPE is responsible for managing the approval process using its consensus-based standards development procedures.
WQA/ASPE S-803 is currently open for public review. It applies to products that treat or otherwise produce water for human consumption (e.g., drinking and/or food and beverage preparation) or recreation but excludes products that treat wastewater. Covered products shall include any of the following: point-of-entry (POE) drinking water systems; plumbed-in, faucet-mounted or other point-of-use (POU) systems; batch systems/devices not connected to the plumbing system; and replacement components for drinking water treatment systems. This standard will be applicable globally and may be used to certify products by any qualified certification body. Public comments on WQA/ASPE S-803 will be accepted until 11:59 p.m. EDT on Friday, June 13, 2014.
WQA/ASPE S-802 opens for public review on Thursday, May 15, 2014. It is limited to activated carbon used in the filtration of potable drinking water within the following applications: POU systems/products, POE systems, commercial/industrial systems, and municipal supply. The following product types are excluded from the scope of this standard: activated carbon used in groundwater or wastewater remediation and carbon cartridge components such as carbon blocks (which are covered as a component certification under WQA/ASPE S-803.) This standard will be applicable globally and may be used to certify products by any qualified certification body. Public comments on WQA/ASPE S-802 will be accepted until 11:59 p.m. EDT on Friday, June 27, 2014.
See also: "Partnership to promote new treatment standards for plumbing industry"
About ASPE
The American Society of Plumbing Engineers is the only professional organization devoted to the training and certification of plumbing engineers and designers. ASPE and its 6,000 worldwide members are dedicated to protecting the health, welfare, and safety of the public through the dissemination of technical data and information to expand the base of knowledge among plumbing engineers, designers, contractors, code officials, inspectors, and manufacturers. For more information, visit ASPE.org.
About WQA
The Water Quality Association is a not-for-profit trade association representing the residential, commercial and industrial water treatment industry. To best serve consumers, industry members and government officials, WQA has an ongoing dialogue with other organizations representing all aspects of the water treatment industry. Since 1959, the WQA Gold Seal certification program has been certifying products that contribute to the safe consumption of water. The WQA Gold Seal program is accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the Standards Council of Canada (SCC). For more information, visit WQA.org.
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