I had to turn the water off to my home for some faucet repair work. In the past, I have gone into my backyard, removed the covers to my water main and turned the valve to shut the water off. Last week, I did just that and nothing happened. I mean nothing happened! I still had water running to my house. I had everything ready to do these repairs, so I crawled under my house and had to deal with shutting off four individual valves to ensure I had one that would stop the water to my faucet. I’m talking about crawling around in a 4’ high space to access all theses valves.

Today, I called the city to ask them to come and show me how to turn off the main in my back yard. Guess what? Do Durango homeowners know that the city put their meters on your underground main and you now cannot shut your main water off?

If you have an emergency you have to find the emergency water number (no easy task when you have water spewing everywhere!), call and wait for someone to arrive to shut your water off.

Oh, and she suggested that I hire a plumber to come and put a main shutoff valve under my house at my expense. Just thought you’d like to know, because I don’t remember the city informing me of this change.

Happy bailing to those unfortunates!

Debra Matthew

Durango