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Who owns the water service line in Del Mar, CA

Which part of the pipe is yours

your buildingproperty linesidewalkstreetmain?
The thick length is yours. A hatched run means nobody has said where it divides.

If something’s wrong

Who to call first about the water service line

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

The documents this answer is built on

Who is responsible for which part

Del Mar's code makes the water pipes laid in its streets City property. Section 21.04.190 provides that "All water pipes which have been approved by the Department, laid in streets, alleys or other public thoroughfares within the City, shall become the property of the City", unless an encroachment permit approved by the City Council provides otherwise. Nothing the City publishes says who repairs the pipe from the meter to the building. This is Del Mar's own statement.

Del Mar
The water pipes in the streets, by ownership. The code defines a service connection as "The tapping of water mains and the laying of pipes from the main to the curb or to the meter", and requires a stopcock "on the sidewalk just inside the curb", supplied by the Department and "for its exclusive use and under its exclusive control". The code states ownership, not a duty to maintain the service pipe.
The property owner
The code does not assign the pipe past the meter to anyone. It requires consumers "to provide at their own expense a stopcock to be placed on the property served within three feet of the water meter". Section 21.04.130 says that "The Department's jurisdiction and responsibility ends at the meter", in a section limiting the City's liability for damage from pipes and fixtures beyond the meter - a liability limit, not a statement of who repairs that pipe. The City's lead service line inventory records ownership of each service line as split between the City and the customer, without saying where.

What else is worth knowing

The City's ownership is stated for pipes in the streets, and its meters are "generally located near the curb in front of your home", though some are elsewhere on the property. Where a meter sits on private land, the stated ownership stops at the street, and nothing the City publishes says who repairs the pipe between the street and the meter. Wherever the meter is, nothing says who repairs the pipe beyond it - ask the City's Public Works Department before paying for work on either run. Check the name on your water bill: the State's register puts the City's system over nearly all of Del Mar, and also puts about 4% of the city inside Santa Fe Irrigation District's service area and about 1% inside the City of San Diego's. If either of them bills you, its own rules apply, not these.

Sources

Del Mar Municipal Code section 21.04.190

Also quoted:

Checked

What Del Mar 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.

Del Mar has classified more of its service lines than most of California: 0.00% of its lines are unclassified, against 9.2% statewide.

Service lines reported
1,739
Still unclassified
0 (0.00%)
Across California, 9.2% of service lines are unclassified.
Share of service lines still unclassified
  • Del Mar0.00%
  • 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 effectively all of Del Mar's land inside the boundary it maps for the city's own water system. Within the same city limits it also maps "SAN DIEGO, CITY OF" (1%). Measured 26 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.
Del Mar: official site

Your other pipe: the sewer lateral

For the sewer lateral, Del Mar says:

Del Mar puts the whole lateral on the owner, under the street as well. Section 22.08.090 provides that "The property owners serviced by a sewer lateral shall be responsible for the maintenance of that lateral. The City shall not maintain the sewer lateral between the street main and the structure."

One of the two authorities does not say where its side ends, so the two answers cannot be compared here.

Same trench, separate authorities, decided separately.

Who pays for the sewer lateral in Del Mar, CA

Look up a specific address

This page describes what applies to properties in Del Mar 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