Regulatory requirements for pipes leading to drains or floor
I was hoping to get some insight on this. We have a new facility that was built but unfortunately i am seeing drain pipes directly go into the trench drains. I was told by a former colleague that there are requirement for drain pipes that they need to be so many inches above the drain to avoid cross contamination I cannot find this anywhere. I want to make sure maintenance understands this and we get this corrected before our SQF. I have had no luck finding a requirement. Any help would be appreciated.
Hi surefresh! I just have a question - I assume these pipes would need to be cleaned somehow? Is there a method to test that the pipe is clean when it leads directly into a trench? In the case of CIP I would want the pipe to end before the drain so I could take a water sample.
Also, I believe what your former colleague was referring to is an "air gap" and it is best practice to have them to avoid contamination from the drain and backflow.
Maybe check with your local health department. In all the plants I’ve been into, the pipes entering a trench drain always go below the top of the trench to prevent side spills but always remain high enough that the water in the trench doesn’t touch or backup into the pipe. I think the risk here is that trench water touches the pipe and allows for pathogens to enter the pipe, which leads to god knows what (sanitary holding tanks, wash sinks, etc). Obviously standing water in a trench would be bad, but sometimes these trenches can have high water levels during routine use and draining from the equipment feeding into them. I would mainly make sure the pipe is low enough to not splash outside and high enough not to be submerged under the worst use scenarios.
I am not aware of a specific requirement - however, I am fully aware of the problem as I used to inspect the food service operations of some of the big box stores like Target, Sams Clubs and Supermarkets - all of which had ice machines. It was uncanny how many of these locations lacked an AIR GAP and thus had the potential for back-sucking (backflow) whatever was in the drain back up into the ice machines - thus, all sort of bacteria/pathogens go thru the machine and end up in the ice that people get in their drinks.
All of these locations along with restaurants all seemed to have the same requirement in their standards manuals, but many did not follow it - the AIR GAP was normally 1.5 to 3 inches above the drain plate - the higher had a hole in the plates matching the diameter of the drain outflow pipe - thus avoiding splash.
On the inspections for these chain stores this was an automatic Major on sight - but autmatically generated a shut-down order if back sucking was suspected/or present.
Years ago, I ordered an iced tea at a restaurant in Jersey and as I raised the glass to my lips I smelled sewage - sure enough, their drain outlets lacked AIR GAPS.