Case Study: Ventura County achieves real-time, self-service backflow test reporting with Accela

Ventura County, California Self-Service Test Reporting on the Civic Platform

Ventura County’s Environmental Health Division, which oversees programs like backflow prevention for its 854,200 residents, faced a growing operational challenge: certified testers faxed more than 1,300 monthly backflow test results that staff had to enter manually. With about 17,000 devices inspected each year, end-of-month fax surges created backlogs, false late notices and extra work for technicians, costing time and creating frustration for citizens.

The county implemented Accela’s Civic Platform—using its public portal and a custom CityGovApp mobile app—to let certified testers submit inspections and photos from the field and create or update devices in real time. The change eliminated paper and fax bottlenecks, reduced data-entry errors, freed staff for training and other priorities, and improved communication between testers, the county and residents.

Ventura County

Ron Ventura

Backflow Prevention Supervisor