Who owns the water service line in Long Beach, CA
The Department owns the water service connection including the meter and meter box, "whether located on public or private property", and maintains, repairs and renews it at its own expense. The shut-off valve in the meter box is to be operated only by Department personnel. This is Long Beach's own statement.
Which part of the pipe is yours
Yours from the meter to your building
Why, and what to doYours from your property line to your building
Why, and what to do
Where the responsibility divides
- Long Beach
- The whole service connection, owned and kept up at the Department's cost. Section 205.7 states that "the service connection, including the meter and meter box, are the property of the Department, whether located on public or private property", and that "the Department will maintain, repair and renew the service connection at its expense". Section 205.8 adds that the shut-off valve in the meter box "shall be operated only by Department personnel".
- The property owner
- The plumbing beyond the meter. The Department's ownership runs to and includes the meter and meter box, so the house side of it is the customer's - though the Rules state that boundary by describing what the Department owns rather than by assigning the remainder, so this is the ordinary reading of where its property stops rather than a sentence the Department wrote about yours.
- What else is worth knowing
- Nothing conditions the Department's side, and that is the point worth taking away: its pipe is its own "whether located on public or private property", so a service line crossing your front garden does not become yours by being on your land. Leave the shut-off valve in the meter box alone - the Rules reserve it to Department personnel. And note that the Department renews as well as repairs, so an aged service line between the main and the meter is its replacement to make, not yours to fund. Your other pipe agrees: the same department maintains the sewer house connection from your property line to the main.
What this does not 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 authority's service line inventory - the record of which pipes are lead, and where - has not been matched here yet. Ask the utility for yours.
Your other pipe has a different answer
For the sewer lateral, Long Beach says:
Long Beach maintains the sewer pipe under the street. Its code makes the owner responsible for the building sewer and then, "notwithstanding" that, has the Water Department maintain the house connection from the property line to the main - including the wye or saddle at the main, and with no cleanout condition attached.
Your sewer lateral is yours to the property line; your water line stops being yours at the meter.
Who pays for the sewer lateral in Long Beach, CAHow 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.