Dunedin City Council development services manager Kevin Thompson said the new step aimed to ensure there was no repeat of cross-connection problems like that which occurred at the Orchard Grove subdivision.
The fault, reported by the Otago Daily Times last month, went undetected by council building inspectors, meaning human waste from a new home was able to empty into the creek running through the subdivision for up to 18 months.
Mr Thompson said the council's building inspectors would in future ask drainlayers and plumbers working on new homes to explain what steps they had taken to ensure the pipes were correctly installed.
Appropriate steps could include a simple water or dye test - which would show if sewerage pipes were emptying into a stream - or using a camera to check con-nections, or even a smell test, Mr Thompson said.
If answers were unsatisfactory, or if inspectors still had doubts, independent tests would be conducted by the inspectors at plumbing companies' expense, before the new home or building was certified, Mr Thompson said.
The move comes as the Otago Regional Council management team considers a staff report before deciding whether to prosecute the city council for failing to detect the Orchard Grove plumbing fault during its inspection process.
ORC staff were expected to announce a decision by yesterday.
Asked if the new measure was an acknowledgement of a gap in council procedures, Mr Thompson said the onus of responsibility for cross-connection faults remained with the companies doing the work.
It was appropriate to review procedures, but he was only aware of three other examples of cross-connection problem.
"You need to go back to the number we have [had] in the past. I don't see a gap," he said.
• It was revealed this week council staff do not record the number of cross connection faults reported.
A request for the information, made by the ODT under the Official Information Act, was declined because "records relating specifically to cross connections have not been kept".
