I believe lehua13 is steering you in the right direction. To really determine if there is a leak from the head and not something else (like ground water drainage), dig down as much as needed and remove the sprinkler head (this shouldn't require much digging as the TOP should most likely be able to unscrew allowing the "guts" of the head to be serviced without digging the whole head up out of the ground and disconnecting it from the pipes). If there IS water comming up into the sprinkler head with both of ya'll systems shut down and no water meaters turning, then about the only thing that makes any sense to me is that he has a broken pipe that is somehow allowing water back-into the system after a blowout. After all, it is possible that a broken line has created a little cave underground that fills with water when he runs the irrigation system. When he then blows out the system, that little cave can still be filled with water. Then, with the system shut down, water from the little storage cave could be flowing back into the broken pipe and out the leaking head.

"Why do you need so much flow?" It's the volume of air you are concerned with not the flow. Blowing out irrigation systems with compressors which supply insufficient volume *can* result in the air overriding the water and leaving water in the line which then pools in the low sections and bursts the pipe/fittings when it freezes.

I am closing my pool and I am having problems blowing out the main drain with my shopvac. I can't see any bubbles coming from the bottom drains (I have 2 drains side by side) so I don't know if the water is pushed down far enough below ground level before I close the valve to the drain. I blew out all my other lines with no problem Jon

Skimming here there are some things to think about The eye sore part: -You can barely see the towers now so there must be some current trees between the house and the towers --but what if something happens to the trees? Disease, more development, the power people feeling the need to cut them down *I would definately try to get a handle on whether there is going to be more development between the house and the power lines -Will winter affect being able to see the towers? -Someone mentioned upgrading - you might want to call the electric company and get an idea of whether they will be upgrading - although it will be hard to find any office or employee that has a clue, you will have to have patience and persistance The risk thing - hard to know. When I was younger I used to worship at sciences feet. As I've gotten older I find scientists tend to be arrogant and absolute. When new findings throw out previous findings which is the nature of science, they don't even blink. They just tout the new findings as the now absolute last word with the same arrogance. I try to do research with information from all sides and apply some common sense and gut feeling. You have to do what feels right for you and don't let anyone make you feel bad for it. Resale - Given a choice I would prefer not to be near power lines. That is of course getting harder to do. You need to really evaluate the bigger picture of the areas people "like you" are looking at. Sounds like schools etc. are important. How many "good" neighborhoods in your price range are affected by a negative (hwy, power lines etc.) Do people have choices? Lkplatow comments: madmartian - I'm in surburban Philadelphia -- close enough to NJ to have the same problems I guess. Too much development, not enough land.... Really the elephant in the room everyone is ignorning is population growth. Although of course I realize a lot of people with chime in with population moving around - growth (whereever it happens) still is a bottom line problem.