Surprise Water Waste Rules for Sprinklers

Where the rules live

The rules sit in Chapter 58, Article VII of the Surprise municipal code, known as the water conservation ordinance. It was adopted in 2012 and remains in the current code. One feature makes it different from a billing rule: the code says it applies to people using water in the city whether or not they are an account holder of the city water system. Surprise has eleven water providers, so an EPCOR or private-company customer inside the city is still expected to avoid wasting water outdoors.

What counts as water waste from irrigation

The ordinance defines water waste as non-beneficial use and gives examples that read like a list of sprinkler faults:

• Landscape water applied so that it overflows the area being watered and runs onto adjacent property or the public right-of-way.
• Water leaving a sprinkler or other device in a direction that sprays onto adjacent property or the right-of-way.
• Water applied in enough quantity to cause ponding on paved or other impervious surfaces.

For this code, the public right-of-way includes sidewalks, curbs, streets and storm drain inlets. A separate section, Sec. 58-657, adds runoff to a gutter, alley, public utility easement or parking area, paved or unpaved, when it is not remedied within a reasonable time after notice. The same section says turf should not be placed in areas that are hard to irrigate, such as sidewalk strips, slopes, driveways and narrow paths, where the sprinklers end up spraying hard surfaces.

The causes the city names

Sec. 58-658 lists the causes of unnecessary water waste. For a yard, the list is practical:

• Damaged or missing spray heads.
• Damaged or missing bubbler heads.
• Damaged or missing drip irrigation lines.
• Damaged or missing water control devices, such as backflow prevention devices or water meters.
• Failure to maintain berms, laterals and irrigation pipes.
• Failure to maintain automatic timers.

That last item is worth noticing. A controller still running a July schedule in December, or a program that runs every station twice after a power reset, is treated as a maintenance failure in the same list as a broken pipe.

The 72-hour expectation

Sec. 58-803 says the owner, manager or person responsible for a property must, no later than 72 hours after first learning of a leak, break or defect, start steps to repair leaking or broken pipes, sprinklers and irrigation systems, and then pursue the repair promptly to completion unless the city grants a variance. Sec. 58-661 separately prohibits letting water escape through breaks or leaks after it should reasonably have been discovered and corrected.

In practice, the clock starts when you know. Starting a repair can mean shutting off the affected zone, arranging a diagnosis and scheduling the fix. It does not require the line to be dug up within three days, but it does mean a known leak should not sit for weeks.

What is not water waste

Sec. 58-802 lists exemptions. Two matter for irrigation. Flow from water supply system failures fixed no later than 72 hours after notice is exempt. And flow that results from inspection or routine maintenance of irrigation systems is exempt. Running each zone to check heads and coverage, as the EPA WaterSense Sprinkler Spruce-Up checklist recommends, is part of fixing the problem rather than a violation.

Check the current drought stage separately

Check Surprise's current drought notices for the active stage and any watering-hour limits. An older Stage 1 notice does not establish current restrictions. The water conservation ordinance also contains emergency measures, including limits on outdoor irrigation, that depend on a formal declaration.

How to find the source of runoff

Most waste complaints start with water where it should not be. Narrow it down before changing anything:

1. Note the time the water appears and which controller station was running.
2. Check whether water appears only during that station's cycle or keeps flowing after it ends.
3. Walk the station and look for tilted heads, heads spraying across paving, split drip tubing and wet valve boxes.
4. If water keeps flowing with the controller off, suspect a valve that will not close or a supply-side leak.

City water customers can also use the WaterSmart portal described on the drought page to track use and set leak alerts. A sudden rise in overnight use is a useful clue, though it does not show where the leak is.

Next step in Surprise

If water is reaching the street or a wet area will not dry, start with irrigation leak detection in Surprise. The irrigation leak detection page explains the diagnosis, the Surprise service area page lists related work, and all irrigation services are on one page. Related reading: Sprinkler Spraying the Sidewalk in Surprise and A Broken Irrigation Pipe in Surprise.