As a public water and wastewater utility administrator and 40+ years licensed professional civil engineer in the water and wastewater industry, I recommend and request that the certification of backflow prevention device workers be continued.  These devices are critical to protecting the quality of public water systems and, thus, the public health of citizens connected to such systems.  Properly trained professionals ensure that such devices are installed and operating properly and that training and expertise can only be ensured by DPOR certification.  Failures of such devices can result in contaminants that should be contained in private water systems connected to public water systems being drawn back into the public systems, contaminating the public water and infrastructure, exposing the public to contaminants that can impact the public health, and cost the public utilities incredible time, effort, and money to flush, disinfect, and restore to proper operation their infrastructure.  I have heard of several such instances.  ACSA receives annual certifications from numerous professionals regarding inspections of backflow prevention devices to ensure proper operation; we do not want such inspections to be terminated or be done by improperly trained people or have to be done by ACSA staff, costing us extensively in money, time, and effort, to do the inspections ourselves.