Water Line Repair in Rio Verde, AZ

Local conditions

Rio Verde is an age-restricted, member-owned golf community in far northeast metro Phoenix, developed starting in 1973, with Tonto National Forest and McDowell Mountain Regional Park nearby. EPCOR runs the Rio Verde water system, about 3,100 connections supplied entirely by groundwater wells, using infrastructure it bought from Rio Verde Utilities in 2018. EPCOR customer care is 1-800-383-0834, and it keeps a service line inventory for this system at epcor.com/safety.

Don't confuse Rio Verde with Rio Verde Foothills next door. The Foothills shares a ZIP area but isn't on EPCOR's Rio Verde system and draws hauled water from a standpipe on 176th Street. For a Foothills home, the "water line" usually runs from an on-site storage tank to the house, and it's entirely private.

With homes going back to the 1970s, some service lines in Rio Verde may be original or patched, so a plumber will want to see the pipe before recommending another repair. Rio Verde is unincorporated, so Maricopa County Planning and Development issues permits; the county lists like-for-like plumbing repair as a web-issued permit.

Repair or new line?

Signs to watch for

• Wet or settling ground between the meter and the house
• Pressure down at every fixture
• The meter turning with no water in use
• For Foothills homes: a storage tank emptying faster than usual

Seasonal timing

A leak in a house that sits empty for part of the year can run for weeks before anyone sees the wet ground or the bill, so if you leave for a stretch, close the main valve and ask a neighbor to glance at the yard now and then. In summer, a damp patch shows up quickly in dry desert ground; after a monsoon storm, give the yard a few dry days before judging. Rare winter freezes mostly threaten exposed pipe and hose bibs rather than buried lines. EPCOR's water here is 11 to 14 grains per gallon hard, which affects fixtures more than buried pipe.