Bob wrote:
My brother in Fortuna, CA, sent me this message last night, I thought
others might enjoy it.
[deleted]
.....the
water system plugs up
from dirt and the volcanic rock from the ground cover that had made
its way into the one and one fourth inch
plastic pipe..........

Been there, done that. I didn't realize that some of the decomposed
granite that makes up our subsoil here (think coarse sand or fine
gravel) had made it into the incoming line, or I would have cleared the
line. By the time I knew we had rocks all through the house, in almost
every valve.

To clear it I had to go to every cold water valve and on each shut off
the main valve, pull the valve packing, hang a hose over the open valve
and have the main turned on briefly. Most of the time the rocks would
come clear, a few times I would have to work a jam out with a
screwdriver. After reassembly and turning the main back on I'd check
the valve and what it controlled, about half of the time more rocks
would come through and I'd have to repeat the process. It took a couple
of days with 4 bathrooms, 8 sinks and 5 faucets to get things cleaned up.

I still find rocks in toilet tanks, and the water heater sounds funny at
times...