PMI Receives Award From NCSBCS To Recognize Model Plumbing Product Approval Program
For Immediate Release
November 01, 2001
Contact: Barbara C. Higgens, Executive Director (847) 884-9764
Schaumburg, Ill.— PMI received the 2000 Streamlining Achievement Award in October from the National Conference of States on Building Codes and Standards (NCSBCS) in recognition of PMI’s model plumbing product approval program. Joseph A. Brewer III, administrator of the state of Oregon’s Building Codes Division, was on hand at NCSBCS’s annual meeting in Orlando to receive the award. Oregon was the model state from which PMI’s plumbing product approval program was developed and the first state to implement it. The program was submitted by PMI to the NCSBCS Regulatory Affairs Committee last year in Providence, R.I.
The "Streamlining the Nation’s Building Regulatory Process" project was initiated by NCSBCS with the support and assistance of 55 national partners and funding from federal agencies and in-kind services of the project’s partners. PMI donated $1,000 to the project last year. The project’s goal, according to NCSBCS is to "reduce or eliminate regulatory barriers in many jurisdictions which create unnecessary delays and compromise safe, affordable and environmentally sound construction."
PMI Technical Director David Viola said, "The model was developed as a tool to educate and encourage state and local jurisdictions to eliminate redundant conformity assessment activities." He added that in developing the model, that Oregon Plumbing Code product approval regulation was used as a starting point because it was a working model that effectively accomplished PMI’s objectives.
Both the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), as well as other certifiers, were involved in the development of the Oregon product approval rules. NIST further acknowledged that the model can be used by other industries to address their conformity assessment problems. Since then, several states have abandoned redundant and non-uniform conformity assessment activities by utilizing a system similar to PMI’s model. PMI was instrumental in advocating the change in each state.
According to Viola, "Receiving the award is just one more acknowledgment of the program’s value and practicality. It’s beneficial to all segments of the industry. It creates uniform enforcement, a level playing field, increases confidence of code compliance all while reducing unnecessary costs to manufacturers. We’re starting to see the results of our efforts, and we continue to encourage other jurisdictions to utilize a similar conformity assessment system."
The Plumbing Manufacturers Institute is the voluntary, not-for-profit national trade association of manufacturers of plumbing products serving as the Voice of the Plumbing Industry. Member companies of PMI produce a substantial quantity of the nation’s plumbing products. For more information on PMI or its semi-annual meetings, contact the Institute at 1340 Remington Road, Suite A, Schaumburg, Ill., 60173; or via phone (847) 884-9PMI (9764), facsimile (847) 884-9775, or website www.pmihome.org