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Who owns the water service line in Cloverdale, CA

Which part of the pipe is yours

your buildingproperty linesidewalkstreetmain
The thick length is yours.

If something’s wrong

Who to call first about the water service line

BelowGrid has no first-call guidance on file from Cloverdale about the water service line.

The documents this answer is built on

Who is responsible for which part

The City of Cloverdale owns and keeps the water service connection up to and including the meter. Section 13.04.330 provides that "The service connection, including the meter and the meter box and all distribution lines, will be repaired and maintained by the city at its own expense." The pipe from the meter to the building is the owner's. This is Cloverdale's own statement.

Cloverdale
The service connection from the main up to and including the meter, its fittings and the meter box. Section 13.04.210(A) provides that "The service connection to and including all meters and fittings, whether located on public or private property, is the property of the city", and that "The city reserves the right to repair, replace and maintain such service connections".
The property owner
The service line from the meter to the building. Section 13.04.210(B) provides that "The city assumes no obligation for maintenance, service or installation of service lines between the meter and the premises being served", and section 13.04.330 that the City "shall not be responsible for the installation and maintenance of water lines beyond the end of its service connection."

What else is worth knowing

The City installs meters "at the curb or at the property line, or when approved, in other suitable locations", so the meter, not the property line, marks the change. The customer may not operate the curb stop in the meter box, and pays for repairs if it is damaged. One thing to check before you rely on any of this: the State's register puts the City's water system over about 71% of Cloverdale's land. About 3% is in South Cloverdale Water Company's area and about 1% in Rains Creek Water District's; if either bills you, its own rules apply, not these. The remaining 26% or so is ground inside the city limits that no published water service area reaches - not a rival utility, and not necessarily unserved. Check the name on your water bill first.

Sources

Cloverdale Municipal Code section 13.04.330, Maintenance

Also quoted:

Checked

What Cloverdale 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.

Cloverdale has classified less of its network than most of California: 45.2% of its service lines are still unclassified, against 9.2% statewide.

Service lines reported
3,231
Still unclassified
1,461 (45.2%)
Across California, 9.2% of service lines are unclassified.
Share of service lines still unclassified
  • Cloverdale45.2%
  • California9.2%

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.
  • The State's service area map puts 71% of Cloverdale's land inside the boundary it maps for the city's own water system. Within the same city limits it also maps "SOUTH CLOVERDALE WATER COMPANY" (3%), "RAINS CREEK WATER DISTRICT" (1%). A share of land is not a share of homes: open space counts the same as a dense block. Measured 3 Oct 2026.
  • Unclassified means nobody has established what the pipe is made of. It does not mean lead was found.
  • Classified does not mean inspected, and this system inspected less than most. Cloverdale established 0.0% of its classifications by field inspection, against 22% across California; 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.
Cloverdale: official site

Your other pipe: the sewer lateral

For the sewer lateral, Cloverdale gives the opposite answer to the one above:

In Cloverdale the property owner maintains the whole lateral, from the City's sewer main to the building. Section 13.12.110 of the City's code provides that "The property owners shall maintain the laterals from the sewer main to the residence." The owner also installs the lateral from the main sewer line to the property, or pays the City to install it.

Your sewer lateral is yours to the main; your water line stops being yours at the meter.

Same trench, separate authorities, decided separately.

Who pays for the sewer lateral in Cloverdale, CA

Look up a specific address

This page describes what applies to properties in Cloverdale in general. To see which authorities serve one address, and what records exist for it, search for it.

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How this compares across California