Dear Friends in Englewood Isles Unit 3

April 3, 2007

Englewood Water has announced that all of their customers will have to put a check valve on all existing water lines. This check valve prevents pulling water back into the system that could contaminant the water. For example if you had your garden hose in the pool and it back siphoned it would pull all of that chlorinated water back into our drinking water. This is actually a health issue, and this valve has been mandated by the Federal Government.

Englewood Isles has two different types of houses, ones on the canal that are high risk and those not on a canal being low risk. High risk means our hose could fall into the canal and pull canal water back.

The options for the low risk are you can buy your own check valve that sits above ground at your meter and have it inspected at your expense annually by a licensed plumber. Or you can pay the Englewood Water $380 and they will put a nice below ground meter and check valve. They will take care of inspecting at no additional cost.

For the high risk houses the check valve will be installed above ground and will have to be inspected at your own expense. These will definitely be a lawn mower obstacle.

The Englewood Water District will be sending out letters notifying everyone sometime in the next couple of months.

If you are selling your house this will be something that will have to be addressed. When the new owners apply for service the water district will make them commit to the purchase, payment and installation of this valve before they will turn the water on. Better to address before you get to closing.  

Here is a photo of the valves being discussed.