Lower Mainland Municipalities begin to implement National Plumbing Code CSA Standard B483.1 (Drinking Water Systems).

In March 2019 the City of Burnaby led the way demanding proof of the service providers CSA B483.1 certification be identified and included in the engineering application for all water treatment systems, and it is expected that all Lower Mainland municipalities will follow.

This National Plumbing Code provision helps standardize water treatment systems installed for the safe treatment of drinking water. The standard, CSA B483.1, has been in the National Plumbing Code since 2007 and was reaffirmed again in 2017.

CAN/CSA-B483.1-07 (R2017)

Drinking Water Treatment Systems

Published by CSA Group
Publication Year 2007
Reaffirmed in 2017

This is the first edition of CSA B483.1, Drinking water treatment systems. This Standard was developed in response to a request to specify plumbing and mechanical requirements for drinking water treatment components and complete systems.

Scope

This Standard covers drinking water treatment systems that are:
(a) point-of-use or point-of-entry plumbed systems and
(b) point-of-use non-plumbed systems.

How Is CSA B483.1 Certification Different Than NSF Certification?

NSF certification is required for all manufacturers of water treatment chemicals (NSF Standard 60) as well as any manufactured components that touch drinking water (NSF Standard 61). A water treatment system might use components from 10 different manufacturers, and each manufacturer will have the NSF (or ANSI) certification for its own component.

CSA B483.1 certification is different. CSA certification is the certification of the entire working system, as a system, not just individual components. It is achieved only when testing engineers are satisfied that all components working together as a system demonstrate safety and safety redundancies that ensure the safety of the end user.

It is a big step further than NSF certification, and is now required in most Municipalities for systems being installed for drinking water treatment across Canada.

Having NSF certification for a chemical or component is NOT the same as CSA B493.1 system certification.