Who is responsible for the sewer lateral in Martinez, CA?

Who pays for the sewer lateral in Martinez, CA

Which part of the pipe is yours

Sewer lateral
Yours all the way to the main, including the fitting where it joins — if certain conditions are met
Why, and what to do

The thick length is yours. A dashed marker means the position depends on your property — see below.

If something’s wrong

If a repair needs a permit or an inspection

Before work on the pipe · Permit
Who issues it:

City of Martinez City Engineer
What it covers:

any encroachment within upon over or under a right-of-way in the city including excavating it or placing a pipeline under it
Martinez Municipal Code section 12.04.050 makes it unlawful for any person, "without first obtaining a written permit, to encroach or to make or cause to be made any encroachment of any nature whatever within, upon, over or under the limits of any right-of-way in the City", and names placing "on, over or under such right-of-way any pipeline, conduit or other fixture" among the acts covered; section 12.08.010 counts excavating or disturbing the right-of-way as an encroachment. The permit is issued by the City Engineer. Both sanitary districts serving Martinez put the lateral under the street on the owner, so this is the City permit an owner needs to dig to it. Mt. View Sanitary District tells contractors the same thing: "The contractor is also responsible to obtain encroachment permits with the City of Martinez or Contra Costa County prior to performing work within public right-of-way".

The repair rule in full, with its sources

No rule on file here is specific to selling, buying, remodelling or adding a unit; that does not mean none exists.

Who to call first about the sewer lateral

BelowGrid has no first-call guidance on file from Martinez about the sewer lateral.

Martinez: official site(opens in a new tab)The documents this answer is built on

Who is responsible for which part

Two sanitary districts collect Martinez's sewage, each in part of the city, and the City's own code defines the public sewer by naming them. Central Contra Costa Sanitary District serves "portions of Martinez", and Mt. View Sanitary District serves "the northeasterly portion of the City of Martinez". On the lateral they agree: it is private, and the owner is responsible for all of it, from the building to the district's main in the street and including the fitting where it joins the main.

The property owner: The whole lateral, on both districts' own texts. Central San's Code of Laws section 9.10.040 opens "A side sewer is a private facility" and makes the owner responsible for "constructing, repairing and maintaining the entire side sewer between the building and the public sewer (including both the lateral and building sewers, and the tap, saddle or wye connection fitting at the public main sewer)". Mt. View Sanitary District's code defines the side sewer as "The privately owned and maintained sewer which connects the plumbing system of the building to the main sewer", beginning "at the point of connection of the main sewer", and section 4.6.9.1 provides that "Side sewers shall be maintained by the owner of the property". The District's own page on laterals adds the fitting in terms - "This also includes the fitting in which the lateral connects to the mainline" - and says the owner is "responsible for all costs related to the installation, connection, maintenance, repair, reconstruction, alteration, abandonment, or removal of the Sanitary Sewer Lateral".

What decides which applies

Which district serves the address decides whose permit and whose rules apply, but not who owns the pipe - on that the two agree. One exception is worth knowing if Central San is your district: it pays nothing toward a side sewer "except where the District itself or its contractor reconstructs or realigns the public sewer, thereby necessitating the reconnection of private side sewers to the public sewer". One part of the city has neither district. The 47 homes of the Stonehurst subdivision in Alhambra Valley are served by Contra Costa County Sanitation District No. 6, whose board is the Martinez City Council; each lot there has its own septic tank, and the district collects and treats what leaves it. The City's code requires owners whose septic tank is connected to a community sewer to have the tank and its "appurtenant facilities (including, but not limited to, sewer laterals, weirs, debris screens, pumps, manhole covers, ball check valve assemblies, etc.)" inspected and certified to the City Engineer by 1 March each year, and the tank pumped every year unless a contractor shows it is not yet needed - "In no event shall a septic tank be pumped fewer than once every three calendar years". It does not say where the owner's pipe ends and the district's begins, so in Stonehurst ask the City Engineer before paying for work near the district's line. Homes on their own septic system with no sewer at all are outside this answer.

Sources

Central Contra Costa Sanitary District Code of Laws, Title 9, Sewers

Also quoted:

Checked 26 Sep 2026 (5 weeks ago)

What the rules say

Most relevant if you are repairing or replacing the pipe

Before work on the pipePermit
Who issues it:

City of Martinez City Engineer
What it covers:

any encroachment within upon over or under a right-of-way in the city including excavating it or placing a pipeline under it
Martinez Municipal Code section 12.04.050 makes it unlawful for any person, "without first obtaining a written permit, to encroach or to make or cause to be made any encroachment of any nature whatever within, upon, over or under the limits of any right-of-way in the City", and names placing "on, over or under such right-of-way any pipeline, conduit or other fixture" among the acts covered; section 12.08.010 counts excavating or disturbing the right-of-way as an encroachment. The permit is issued by the City Engineer. Both sanitary districts serving Martinez put the lateral under the street on the owner, so this is the City permit an owner needs to dig to it. Mt. View Sanitary District tells contractors the same thing: "The contractor is also responsible to obtain encroachment permits with the City of Martinez or Contra Costa County prior to performing work within public right-of-way".
What to do: First confirm which district serves the address - Central San or Mt. View Sanitary District - and get that district's sewer permit. Then apply to the Martinez City Engineer for an encroachment permit with the district's consent attached, a certificate of insurance and the deposit the engineer sets. Tell the engineer when excavation will start and when the work is finished. If a blocked lateral cannot wait, call the engineer's office (or the police out of hours) before digging and apply within ten calendar days.
Why this matters
The City permit comes after the district's, not instead of it. Section 12.12.030 has the applicant attach "the written order or consent to any work thereunder, required by law, of the Public Utilities Commission, sanitary district, water district or any other public body having jurisdiction", and "A permit shall not be issued until and unless such order, or consent, if required, is first obtained and evidence thereof filed with the engineer." Central San states that "When sewer work will occur outside the building, whether it is on property or off property, a Central San sewer permit is required", and Mt. View Sanitary District issues its own repair permits. Section 12.12.051 requires a certificate of insurance "in an amount and in a form satisfactory to the City Attorney" before any encroachment permit issues, and chapter 12.16 a cash deposit fixed by the engineer to cover restoring the right-of-way, released ninety days after the work is satisfactorily finished. Section 12.20.100 prefers boring to trenching: "Utility, service and other small diameter pipes or rigid conduits shall be jacked, bored, driven or otherwise forced underneath a paved surface", and the road cut where that is not practical. In an emergency section 12.04.070 lets maintenance of a pipe lawfully under a street start first, provided the engineer's office is notified - the Police Department when City offices are closed - and the permit is applied for within ten calendar days.
Checked 26 Sep 2026 (5 weeks ago)
Martinez Municipal Code Title 12, City Real Property, Division I, Encroachments
Also quoted:

What this page cannot tell you

No assistance or grant programme has been reviewed for this jurisdiction yet.

Who governs and serves this area

Jurisdiction: Martinez (municipality)
Sewer service: Central Contra Costa Sanitary District
Which provider serves a particular address depends on where it is. Look up an address to resolve it.

How this compares to neighbouring cities

6 of the 8 nearest cities draw the line somewhere else. Each authority publishes only its own rule.

Martinez(this page)
the main, including the connection fitting on the main (conditions apply)
Beniciaabout 5 mi
the property line (conditions apply; see that page)
Concordabout 7 mi
the cleanout (conditions apply; see that page)
Herculesabout 10 mi
the main
Pinoleabout 11 mi
the main (conditions apply; see that page)
Richmondabout 14 mi
the main, including the connection fitting on the main
Pittsburgabout 12 mi
the property line
El Cerritoabout 12 mi
the main, including the connection fitting on the main
San Ramonabout 19 mi
the main (conditions apply; see that page)

Distances are approximate, in a straight line between the places’ centres.

Compare the rules city by city

Nearby cities and further reading

Look up a specific address

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

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