Who owns the water service line in Imperial Beach, 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
The utility owns the service pipe, the curb stop, the meter and the meter box. The customer lays and keeps in repair the piping from the meter to the house. This is California American Water, Coronado's own statement.
- California American Water, Coronado
- California American Water's CPUC tariff, Rule 16, states that "The service pipe, curb stop, meter, and meter box furnished by or on behalf of the utility and located wholly or partially upon a customer's premises are the property of the utility." That is ownership: the rule does not say in terms who repairs the service pipe.
- The property owner
- The piping from the meter onward. As a condition of service the customer must "Furnish and lay the necessary piping to make the connection from the service connection to the place of consumption and shall keep such piping in good repair". Rule 1 defines the service connection as "The point of connection of the customer's piping or ditch with the meter, service pipe or ditch owned by the utility", and Rule 16 provides that "The service connection will determine the point of delivery of water service to the customer."
What else is worth knowing
Sources
California American Water, Rule No. 16What California American Water, Coronado 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.
California American Water, Coronado has classified more of its service lines than most of California: 0.00% of its lines are unclassified, against 9.2% statewide.
- 22,089
- 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.
- The State's service area map puts effectively all of Imperial Beach's land inside the boundary it maps for California American Water, Coronado. 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, Imperial Beach says:
Imperial Beach puts the building sewer and the lateral under the street on the owner, up to the City's saddle on the main. Section 13.04.040 provides that "All persons whose premises are connected to the public sewer shall be responsible for the installation, maintenance and upkeep of the building sewer and the sewer lateral to the point where the lateral attaches to the saddle connection on the public sewer or sewer main."
Your sewer lateral is yours to the main; your water line stops being yours at the meter.
Who pays for the sewer lateral in Imperial Beach, CALook up a specific address
This page describes what applies to properties in Imperial Beach 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.