Prepare Your Irrigation System From Back Siphonage

The US Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974 established a national program to ensure the quality of America’s drinking water.

Before installing your sprinkler system, you need to familiarize yourself with the codes and regulations regarding irrigation systems for your community or city. There are two primary forms of backflow: back-siphonage and backpressure.

What Is Back Siphonage?

With back siphonage, the water from the irrigation system is siphoned or sucked into the potable water supply. This can cause a loss of pressure. An example is if you were using a hose-end insecticide handheld sprayer to spread bug killer in your flowerbed. If negative pressure occurred while the sprayer is attached, the contents could be siphoned out of the sprayer and into the drinking water, which could cause severe illness or death. If the garden hose had a backflow preventer, such as this hose bib vacuum breaker connected to the spigot, weedkiller would not have entered the drinking water supply. Other causes include waterline flushing, or when waterline breaks in our water mains happen.

Defining Backpressure

Backpressure is another common way contaminants enter our drinking water supply. Backpressure is a backflow caused by a downstream pressure that is greater than the upstream or supply pressure in a public water system or your drinking water. If you have sprinklers on a sloped area in your landscape, backpressure can cause contaminants from fertilizer and animal waste to enter your drinking supply.

All backflow preventers must be installed correctly. Follow the instructions that come with the units. Backflow Preventers should be checked at least yearly for proper operation. And the backflow preventer should be protected from freezing.

Sprinkler Warehouse has everything for your irrigation needs so that your trees, lawns, flowerbeds, and gardens are lush and beautiful. If you have any questions, chat with one of our customer service agents on Sprinkler Warehouse dot com. And don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more how-to videos and irrigation tips. For Sprinkler Warehouse I’m Alfred Castillo, your Sprinkler Warehouse pro!