Also known as a pressure vacuum breaker, this device allows water to flow from your household water supply to fill your irrigation system, but prevents the water from flowing from your irrigation system back into your household pipes. It is required to prevent fertilizer, chemicals and residual water that seep into your sprinkler heads and pipes from flowing back into your home. This device can freeze and break in the winter, so it is recommended to blow out your sprinkler systems, drain any excess water from the backflow preventer and shut off the irrigation supply valve in the fall.
Irrigation Shut-Off Valve:
A handle or knob on the water line in your house that opens and closes the water supply to your irrigation system. This supply valve is generally located on a lateral pipe that leads away from the main vertical supply pipe. The line should be shut off and winterized before freezing weather in order to prevent water from freezing and cracking your irrigation equipment.
Main Shut-Off Valve:
A handle or knob on the water line in your house that opens and closes the water supply to your household. This supply valve is generally located near the floor on a vertical pipe that is fed by the service line from the street to your house.
Meter Pit:
A pit in your yard generally located near the street, capped with a metal or composite lid, to house your water meter. Homes only have a meter pit if there is an outside meter; some customers have meters in their basement. It is important to keep this area free of landscaping materials, sod, etc, so ECCV personnel has easy access to the meter.
Transmitter:
A device that employs radio signals or a long-range wireless network to transmit customers’ meter readings to a District computer. ECCV crews collect readings on water usage from each homeowner’s meter once a month. Tampering with a transmitter is prohibited and subject to fines.
Water Meter:
A device that measures the volume of water used at each residence to determine a monthly bill. Meters are located either outside in a meter pit or in your basement. Water meters in the District are owned, read, and maintained by ECCV. Tampering with a meter is prohibited and subject to fines.
