Industrial processing and GFCI's per NEC 2014

[jperkins]

We use open cooling water troughs in our process. Our safety officer stated any receptacle within 3 ft of said water trough, must have GFCI protection for personel, per Federal Mandate.I cannot find anything in the NEC to address this. I do believe it is a good idea, but i cannot find anything to reference the distance.
The distance is important to me because the GFCI's are false tripping when we put a resistive heating load through a variac for our operation. I need to know the distance requirement so I know how far these need to be moved out of the boundry to put them on a standard receptical. Anyone got anything on this?

 

[Dennis Alwon]

I know that the nec requires 6' from a sink however I don't know of anything in the nec about a water trough or 3' for that matter

 

[jperkins]

That's what I got. The three feet thing really threw me. I think with the language of Federal mandate, usually means NIOSH or OSHA. But I cannot find anything there either.