Who owns the water service line in Big Bear Lake, CA
Which part of the pipe is yours
Yours from the meter to your building
Why, and what to doYours all the way to the main under the road
Why, and what to do
If something’s wrong
Who to call first about the water service line
Who is responsible for which part
Big Bear Lake's Department of Water and Power owns and maintains the service up to and including the meter, and the customer has everything past it. Its rules provide that "The DWP's title and responsibility shall end at the outlet side of the meter", and that "The Customer shall be responsible for the expense of installation and maintenance of the Customer's Water System connected to the DWP's meter outlet." This is Big Bear Lake's own statement.
- Big Bear Lake
- The service pipe from the main and the meter. "The DWP will furnish and install and thereafter maintain all meters, pipes, equipment, and materials for the Water Service and title to all such meters, pipe, equipment, and materials shall remain with the DWP."
- The property owner
- The Consumer's Water System, which "begins where piping exits the water meter".
What else is worth knowing
Sources
City of Big Bear Lake Department of Water and PowerWhat Big Bear Lake reported to the State about service-line materials
Federal rules required every community water system to inventory its service lines and publish the result. These are the figures this one filed.
The inventory records what each line is made of: lead, galvanized requiring replacement, non-lead, or lead status unknown. “Still unclassified” counts the lines whose material has not been identified. It does not mean they are lead.
Big Bear Lake has classified more of its service lines than most of California: 0.00% of its lines are unclassified, against 9.2% statewide.
- 14,996
- 0 (0.00%)
What this page cannot tell you
- This describes who is responsible for which part of the pipe. It is not a record of what your own service line is made of.
- This answer applies inside the area the State maps for Big Bear Lake's own water system, which does not follow the city limits: some addresses in the city are served by another supplier, and some outside it are served by the city. An address search checks which side an address is on.
- The State's service area map puts effectively all of Big Bear Lake's land inside the boundary it maps for the city's own water system. Measured 25 Sep 2026.
- Classified does not mean inspected. Across California only 22% of service lines were established by field inspection; most of the rest come from records, the year of construction, or a predictive model.
- These figures were submitted to the State by the water system itself and were read on 4 Sep 2026. They may not reflect its current inventory - ask the water system to confirm anything about a specific address.
Your other pipe: the sewer lateral
For the sewer lateral, Big Bear Lake gives the opposite answer to the one above:
In Big Bear Lake the whole building sewer, lateral and cleanout included, is the user's to maintain, repair and replace. Section 13.08.410 of the City's code provides that "The user shall bear the burden and all expenses related to maintenance and repair or replacement of the building sewer."
Your sewer lateral is yours to the main; your water line stops being yours at the meter.
Who pays for the sewer lateral in Big Bear Lake, CALook up a specific address
This page describes what applies to properties in Big Bear Lake in general. To see which authorities serve one address, and what records exist for it, search for it.
Search for an addressHow this compares across California
- Why your two pipes disagree — the places where the sewer and water authorities contradict each other about the run beneath the road.
- Which water systems know what is buried — how much of each California system’s network the utility can actually identify.