Standards Development

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The American Society of Plumbing Engineers is committed to helping plumbing engineers design high-quality plumbing systems that protect public health and safety by developing consensus standards on plumbing system design practices. ASPE is a member of and approved by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) as an ANSI-accredited standards developer. As such, ASPE may submit standards for approval by ANSI’s Board of Standards Review as meeting certain criteria regarding due process in development to be designated as American National Standards.

Procedures for ASPE Design Standards Development, 2022

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Main Design Standards Committee

Overall supervision of ASPE's design standards activities is the responsibility of the Main Standards Committee. The Main Standards Committee is the consensus body having responsibility for the review and approval of all ASPE Design Standards. The Main Standards Committee may assign specific activities to Technical Committees; however, final approval of actions related to Standards need to go through the consensus process of the Main Standards Committee.

Participation in the standards process is open to all persons who are directly and materially affected by the activity in question. Participation may be through membership on the Main Standards Committee or a Technical Committee.

Voting membership on the Main Standards Committee is not conditional upon membership in ASPE, nor unreasonably restricted on the basis of technical qualifications or other such requirements. Members are expected to serve for a term of not less than one year.

The duty of each member is to give thorough consideration to each subject brought before them for action, to vote on approval or disapproval of each proposal, to contribute his/her expertise in the preparation of standards, to advise on membership on the committee and subordinate groups, and to assist generally in carrying out the functions of the committee. Such duties shall be carried out by attendance at meetings, by correspondence, and by telephone, teleconference, or other electronic means.

Classification of Members (Interest Groups)

Engineer/Designer: those who are responsible for designing and specifying plumbing systems for commercial, industrial, and residential facilities

Producer: those directly concerned with the production or distribution of the product or service involved, including industry associations representing producers or distributors, or those receiving substantial support from a producer directly concerned

User: those who use the product or service involved, or those who receive substantial support from a user directly concerned, but are not involved with its production or distribution, e.g., User-Consumer: a person using goods and services rather than producing or selling them, when the committee’s activity deals with a consumer product such as a water heater; User-Industrial: the industrial user of a product, where the committee’s activity deals with an industrial product such as refrigerant chemicals; User-Government: the representative of a government agency, where the committee’s activity is likely to be used as the basis for government agency procurement such as for  the design or performance testing of building systems or equipment; User-Labor: a representative of labor, where the committee’s activity deals with worker products used in the workplace or with the workplace environment

General Interest: those who have interests other than those described above and may include consulting engineers or employees of appropriate government agencies, nationally recognized testing laboratories or educational institutions, and codes-oriented individuals

For More Information

Questions about ASPE standards, the Main Committee, or Working Groups should be sent to [email protected].

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