A stop box is a valve located between the water main and your home. Often, you can see a metal cap approximately 4-6 inches in diameter on your lawn near the street or in your sidewalk or driveway. Stop boxes allow the Oskaloosa Municipal Water Department employees to turn off the water to your home.

Most often, this is done at the homeowner's request so plumbing repairs can be made or when someone is moving out of the property and wants the water service terminated. On rare occasions, the Oskaloosa Municipal Water Department will turn off the water to a property due to a payment collection issue. To avoid having your water cut off, please contact our office to make payment arrangements if you are unable to pay your bill in a timely fashion.

If it is not operational (after many years, it can corrode and break), the homeowner is responsible for repairing the stop box as well as the service line from the home to the water main. Oskaloosa Municipal Water Department maintains and repairs the water main.