8.5 Maryland Backflow Program: 32-Hour Course, Certification & Reporting

8.5 Maryland Backflow Program: 32-Hour Course, Certification & Reporting

Quick Answer: Every applicant for the Maryland Journey or Master Plumber/Gas Fitter examination must submit a non-expired, approved 32-hour course in Backflow Prevention Device Testing with the examination application. It is an eligibility condition for sitting the exam, not an optional specialty credential — an incomplete or expired certificate stops the application before PSI ever schedules you.

The 32-Hour Course Is an Exam Prerequisite

Maryland is unusual: most states treat backflow tester certification as an add-on you pursue after licensure. Maryland front-loads it. Business Occupations and Professions Article, Title 12 requires a Journey applicant to have "completed at least 32 hours of training in the testing of backflow prevention devices, in a manner approved by the Board," and the PSI Qualification Information Bulletin repeats the same sentence under every applicant pathway — in-state Journey, Master, out-of-state applicants, and applicants verifying a Baltimore County or WSSC licence: "All applicants for examination are required to submit a non-expired, approved 32-hour course in Backflow Prevention Device Testing."

The word non-expired carries weight. The provider issues a pocket identification card showing the dates the certification is valid; an out-of-date card makes the application incomplete. Note also that the Board states individuals requesting backflow training do not have to hold a valid apprentice or journeyperson licence in order to enroll — although individual approved providers may impose their own licence prerequisite, so confirm before you register. The Board publishes the list of approved providers, which includes Maryland PHCC, the Baltimore Metropolitan Chapter of ABC, Pipe Trades Technologies, the Pipeline Training Institute, the IAPMO Backflow Prevention Institute and several union training centers.

What COMAR 09.20.04 Requires of an Approved Program

COMAR 09.20.04 — the Board of Plumbing's Cross Connection/Backflow Prevention Certification Program chapter — defines a certified technician as someone certified to install, test, repair and make reports on a mechanical cross connection/backflow prevention device or assembly after completing a Board-approved 32-hour program. The chapter dictates the curriculum, which must cover, at minimum:

1. Introduction to backflow prevention
2. Hazards of cross connection and backflow
3. Laws of backflow prevention
4. Responsibilities of the certified technician
5. Methods, mechanisms and installation techniques used to prevent backflow
6. Field testing
7. Field reports
8. Troubleshooting
9. Repair of a backflow occurrence
10. Recertification

The training facility must be equipped with a test kit, one of each mechanical device or assembly needed to cover ASSE 1011, 1012, 1013, 1015, 1019, 1020, 1022, 1024, 1035 and 1056, and a live assembly set up for field testing. On completion the provider issues a certificate naming the provider and technician, stating that the course is a 32-hour Board-approved program, and carrying the completion date, the instructor's signature and the certification technician number — plus a pocket identification card bearing the title "Certified Backflow Prevention Technician" and the validity dates.

Certification Is Not Authorization: Who May Test in Maryland

This is the distinction Maryland writes into regulation, and it is exactly the kind of point an exam item is built on. COMAR 09.20.04.02F states that completing an approved program does not authorize an individual to:

• Install, test or certify a mechanical cross connection/backflow prevention device unless that individual is licensed by the Board as a master or journey plumber; or
• Assist in installing, testing or certifying such a device unless licensed by the Board as an apprentice plumber.

So the working credential is a stack: plumbing licence at the journey level or above, plus the 32-hour certification, plus whatever firm registration the local purveyor demands. WSSC Water states the same rule for its service area — only WSSC-licensed, registered journey or master plumbers who are also certified cross-connection technicians may test or repair assemblies. Separately, COMAR 09.20.04.02E requires any county or local government employee appointed as an inspector of mechanical cross connection/backflow prevention devices to have completed a Board-approved program.

Permits: Pull It Before the Assembly Goes In

A backflow prevention assembly is a plumbing system alteration, and the permit comes first. IPC 2018 Section 106.1 requires any owner, owner's authorized agent or contractor who desires to "erect, install, enlarge, alter, repair, remove, convert or replace any plumbing system" regulated by the code to first apply to the code official and obtain the required permit. Section 106.2 exempts only narrow work — stopping leaks and clearing stoppages, and removing and reinstalling water closets where no valves, pipes or fixtures are rearranged. Installing a backflow assembly is nowhere in that list.

The compliant sequence is therefore:

1. Obtain the plumbing permit from the authority having jurisdiction.
2. Install the assembly per the manufacturer's listing and IPC Section 608 clearance rules.
3. Initial field test by a certified technician, immediately at installation.
4. Submit the test report to the water purveyor's cross-connection control program.
5. Inspection and final approval, which most jurisdictions will not grant until the passing test report is on file.

WSSC Water publishes the permit types explicitly: a long-form permit and inspection for the first-time installation or relocation of a testable assembly, a short-form permit and inspection for replacing or permanently removing one, and an exemption from permit for rebuilding or replacing a non-testable device (ASSE 1012, 1022, 1024, 1081) — which a homeowner may do in residential applications only.

Containment, Isolation and the MDE Framework

Two words separate the code from the purveyor program:

• Isolation protects the building's occupants at each point of use. This is what the IPC governs, through Section 608 and Table 608.1 — the fixture-by-fixture, appliance-by-appliance selection of an air gap, RP, DC, PVB, SVB, AVB or hose connection vacuum breaker.
• Containment protects the public main with a single assembly at the service entrance, so that whatever happens inside the premises stays inside the premises. The IPC does not impose blanket containment; the water purveyor does.

The purveyor's authority traces back to the Maryland Department of the Environment. COMAR 26.04.01.32 requires the water supplier for every community water system to submit a plan for controlling cross connections to the Approving Authority — for systems built after January 1, 1988, either with the construction specifications or within 3 months following start-up — and then to implement the approved plan. In other words, the State mandates that a program exist; the purveyor writes the operating details.

In practice, containment assemblies are required on commercial and industrial water services and on the higher-hazard connections within them: fire protection systems, lawn irrigation, cooling towers, boilers with chemical additives, medical, dental and laboratory facilities, car washes, funeral establishments, and any premises where an interior survey is impractical or refused. Hazard classification drives the assembly — an air gap or RP for contaminants (health hazards), a DC for pollutants (aesthetic or non-health hazards).

Survey and hazard-assessment duties fall partly on you. WSSC Water runs a self-survey program supported by field inspectors who prioritize by hazard, and it may send a survey notice to an owner or tenant that a plumber can complete on their behalf. Doing it properly means walking the premises, listing every actual and potential cross-connection, classifying each as high or low hazard, and specifying the assembly the hazard demands rather than the cheapest one that fits.

Reporting, Recertification and Records

Read that recertification row carefully, because it is where candidates get tripped up. The Board's regulation obliges an approved program to offer recertification training every 5 years; it does not publish a single statewide expiration date for an individual technician's card. Most Board-approved Maryland providers issue a 3-year certification with no grace period, and WSSC Water enforces a 3-year cycle. Your card's own validity dates and your purveyor's rule govern — not a number you assume.

The same caution applies to deadlines and fees generally. Where the Board does not publish an exact timeline, the local water purveyor sets it. Baltimore City DPW enforces its cross-connection prohibition through its Water and Wastewater Regulations, Baltimore County administers its own Plumbing and Gasfitting Code, and WSSC Water administers the WSSC Plumbing and Fuel Gas Code across Montgomery and Prince George's Counties. Ask the purveyor rather than guessing.

Record retention is the tester's own protection. Keep a copy of every test report you submit, the tag data left on each assembly (WSSC requires a dated tag showing the test report number and result), and your gauge's current calibration certificate. If a backflow incident is ever investigated, those three documents are what establish that the assembly was tested correctly, by a qualified person, with an accurate instrument.

Exam Trap: Distractors present the 32-hour backflow course as post-licensure continuing education, as a renewal requirement, or as something only plumbers who want backflow work need. All three are wrong. It is an application prerequisite for both the Journey and the Master exam, Maryland has no general continuing-education requirement for plumber renewal, and the certificate alone still does not permit an unlicensed person to test an assembly.