Water Ready, Emergency Steady

Be emergency ready! Use these smart water use tips to help you prepare:

1. Keep an emergency supply of potable water accessible. ​​​​​​

Learn more about how to safely store water before and after an emergency, and how to disinfect water in the event of an emergency. Click on the link to visit our Emergency Water Storage page.

2. Locate and map all valves, practice shutting them off, and show members of your household how to do the same. 

Sometimes valves are old and may be stuck, keep spinning, or even break off in your hand. It is much easier to find and fix valves now, rather than during a water supply emergency. These are common types and locations of water shut-off valves to identify: 

• House Valves are usually located outside of your house and may be found just below the hose bib faucet where the main water line enters your home. The valve will typically have a round or oval handle (gate valve), or a straight lever handle (ball valve) that controls the flow of the water to the entire house. To close the gate valve, turn the round or oval valve handle clockwise. This valve typically turns the water off slowly and will need several turns to be fully closed. To close a ball valve, turn the straight lever handle clockwise a quarter turn so it sits perpendicular to the pipe. Ball valves must be closed and opened slowly and smoothly to avoid undue stress or damage to pipes and fittings. If your home does not have a house shut-off valve, please consider having one installed. 

• Fixture Valves are found under sinks, at clothes washers, and hot water heaters. These valves only turn off the adjacent fixture. 

Please note that customers are encouraged to call a plumber for issues on the customer's side of the meter. 

Irrigation Off - Save Water for Firefighting

Irrigating your landscape or hosing down your property might seem like a good idea during a wildfire, but this unnecessary use of water can strain the local supply at a time when firefighters urgently need to combat the blaze. 

Learn more about why it’s best to leave your irrigation off: 

1. During a fire, do not hose down your property or irrigate your landscape. 

Hosing down your house or landscape during a wildfire is both ineffective and wasteful. In most cases, the water evaporates quickly or runs off before the fire even reaches your property, offering little to no protection. Instead of using a hose during a fire, focus on preparing your property in advance by creating defensible space and using fire-resistant materials. 

2. Turn off your irrigation before evacuation.

It might seem like a good idea to leave your irrigation running during a wildfire, but it can quickly become a problem once the fire threat has passed – and your sprinklers are still going.  

During a wildfire, SCV Water’s top priority is supporting firefighters by making sure they have the water they need to protect our community. We don’t have the staff to return to individual homes to turn off irrigation, and we can’t shut off just the sprinklers – we can only turn off water to the entire property at the meter. 

So before you evacuate turn off your irrigation. It helps conserve water when it’s needed most.