Backflow testing in Marshall.

Marshall village has been on public water since 2008, when FCWSA bought the town’s private water system and its 584 customers, laid a new main down Main Street and put up towers on Stephenson Hill and out at the Route 17 and I-66 site. Homes inside the Marshall Service District are FCWSA accounts, and their devices fall under its cross-connection program. Past the district line it’s private wells and septic, and FCWSA doesn’t regulate private wells, so out there no utility test notice is coming.

That line isn’t fixed for every house. When a home switches from its own well to FCWSA water, the authority’s plan wants the old well properly abandoned under Health Department rules, with the VDH Well Inspection Statement turned in, and a property that keeps another water source gets an on-site inspection before it’s connected. If you’re making that switch, plan for the backflow device as part of the job instead of hearing about it at the inspection.

Nearly three homes in ten around Marshall are rented. FCWSA sends a fresh self-survey whenever the name on the account changes. It asks about outside spigots, lawn sprinklers, hot tubs, ponds with pumps, water storage tanks and more, so it’s how FCWSA learns what’s on the property. If you just moved in, ask the seller or the last tenant whether the sprinklers were ever tested, and answer the survey from what’s actually in the yard.

More than one owner home in five around Marshall was built before 1960, long before the village had a public water system. Sprinklers on lots like that went in later, on whatever pipe was handy, and the device can end up in a basement corner or crawlspace rather than out by the foundation. North of Main, the newer houses went up from the 1960s through the 1990s, and the townhouse groups south of Main usually water a shared lawn. Our backflow test cost guide covers what drives the price.