Is the wet spot in my yard where the leak is?

Not always. Water travels through soil before it surfaces, especially over hard layers, so the wet spot can sit some distance from the break. Compare when the area is wet with which station ran last, and trace the pipe route before digging, after buried utilities have been located.

How much water can an irrigation leak waste?

More than most people expect. EPA WaterSense says a broken irrigation system can waste up to 25,000 gallons over a single irrigation season, and small leaks running every night add up because nobody is watching. Checking the system monthly is the simplest way to catch one early.

Irrigation Leak Detection

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Reading the yard before anyone digs

Most irrigation leaks are slow. The City of Peoria describes the typical one as a steady trickle that is hard to find, showing up as a patch greener or wetter than the ground around it, as pooling, or as bubbles in the grass where water is trapped below. The louder versions are broken heads that geyser, missing drip emitters that spray, and valves that will not shut.

Leak detection sorts those clues by timing. Water that appears only during one station's cycle belongs to that station's lateral, fittings or heads. Water that keeps coming between cycles points to a valve that is not sealing or to the pressurized line feeding the valves. Because Peoria asks for watering between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m., the leak usually runs while everyone is asleep, so a daytime manual test and a meter reading with everything off are often the first real evidence. The Arizona Department of Water Resources, citing EPA, puts typical household leak losses at more than 10,000 gallons a year.

Narrowing it down, then digging in the right place

Water moves through soil before it surfaces, and desert ground with caliche layers can carry it sideways, so the wet spot is a starting point rather than the address of the break. The search follows the pipe route from the valve manifold, isolates sections and compares readings with stations on and off. Only then does excavation start, and Peoria's own guidance is that these leaks usually need digging but that you should always know what is below through Arizona 811 first.

If the wet ground is at the meter or in the street rather than in the yard, it may be the water provider's line; Peoria lists a water leaks line for city customers. Once the break is exposed it is repaired with matching fittings, the station runs so the joint and every head downstream can be watched, and the schedule is checked, since a zone losing water may have been given extra minutes. Pipe work is covered under PVC pipe and mainline repair and a weeping valve under valve and solenoid repair.

Source: City of Peoria, Water Conservation, Checked Oct 1, 2026