Who pays for the sewer lateral in Bakersfield, CA
Which part of the pipe is yours
Yours all the way to the main under the road
Why, and what to do
Who is responsible for which part
The house connection sewer is the owner's all the way to the public sewer - but Bakersfield will do the hard half for you if you ask. Section 14.12.195 commits the City to repairing "that portion of the house connection sewer between the improved city right-of-way and the public sewer for a fee to be determined on a time and materials basis". The City will do the work; the cost is yours, and it is not published.
- The property owner
- The house connection sewer, the whole of it. Section 14.12.195 states that "all property owners shall maintain the house connection sewer from all points on their property to the public sewer", and that "it is the responsibility of all property owners to repair any blockage of or damage to the house connection sewer". The code defines a house connection as "the sewer connecting the building sewer or building waste drainage system to the public sewer for the purpose of conveying domestic wastewater".
- What else is worth knowing
- Nothing splits the pipe, but Bakersfield offers something almost no authority does and it is worth a phone call before you hire anyone. For the length between the improved city right-of-way and the main - the part that needs the road opened - the code says the City "will repair" it at your request, "for a fee to be determined on a time and materials basis". That is an undertaking rather than a discretion: you can ask and the City is to do it. What you cannot do is compare it against a contractor's quotation in advance, because time and materials is not a price. So ask the City for an estimate and get a contractor's figure for the same length, then choose. The same offer is extended to properties in the unincorporated area connected to the city public sewer. One warning about the code itself: it uses the word "lateral" to mean the City's main - "'lateral sewer,' 'collecting sewer' or 'main line sewer' means the public sewer usually eight inches or larger in diameter" - which is the reverse of how your plumber will use it. The pipe you own is a "house connection sewer" here.
What is required
Bakersfield requires a sewer permit and the city engineer's approval before anything is attached to a city sewer: "any person desiring to connect to a sewer of the city shall obtain a sewer permit", and "a sewer permit will not be issued unless the applicant has first obtained approval from the city engineer". For an ordinary house connection the code is explicit about the sequence - "direct attachment of a sewer six inches or smaller in diameter to a city sewer will be made only after the connection permit and wastewater discharge permit, if required, are obtained and all required fees are paid by the applicant". Separately, section 14.12.195 offers an alternative to hiring anyone: at a property owner's request "the city will repair that portion of the house connection sewer between the improved city right-of-way and the public sewer for a fee to be determined on a time and materials basis".
What to do: Decide first who is doing the work. If you want the City to repair the run between the improved right-of-way and the main, ask Public Works for an estimate of the time and materials before you agree, and get a contractor's figure for the same length so you have something to compare it with. If you are hiring a contractor, get the city engineer's approval before the permit application and expect to pay the fees before anything is attached to the city sewer - the code makes payment a precondition of attachment, not a bill afterwards. Use the words "house connection sewer" rather than "lateral" when you ring: in this code a lateral is the City's pipe.
Bakersfield Municipal Code, Title 14 chapter 14.12, SewersWhy this matters
In Bakersfield the house connection sewer is yours all the way to the public sewer, so an ordinary repair usually means opening the City's road - and that is the engineer's approval and a permit before anything is attached. But you have a second option almost nobody else on this site has: you can require the City to do that stretch itself. The catch is that its price is "a fee to be determined on a time and materials basis", which is an open invoice rather than a quotation, so the one comparison you most want to make - City against contractor - cannot be made from published figures. One vocabulary warning, because it will cause confusion at a counter: this code defines "lateral sewer" as the PUBLIC main. The pipe you own is called a house connection sewer here.
Who governs and serves this area
- Jurisdiction
- Bakersfield (municipality)
- Sewer service
- Not mapped. No sewer service territory covering this area has been added, so BelowGrid cannot say who serves an individual address here.
What BelowGrid cannot say yet
- No assistance or grant programme has been reviewed for this jurisdiction yet.
- No sewer service territory has been mapped for this area, so BelowGrid cannot say who serves an individual address.
How this compares to neighbouring cities
1 of the 4 nearest cities draw the line somewhere else. No single authority publishes that comparison, because each knows only about itself.
Look up a specific address
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