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Who owns the water service line in Pacific Grove, 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 California American Water, Monterey about the water service line.

The documents this answer is built on

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, Monterey's own statement.

California American Water, Monterey
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

If a leak is on the street side of the meter, the pipe is the utility's property, so report it to California American Water before hiring anyone. Check the name on your water bill first. The State's register puts California American Water's Monterey system over about 97% of Carmel-by-the-Sea, about 99% of Pacific Grove and about 94% of Monterey, where Marina Coast Water District's area covers about 2%. In Sand City, the register puts the Monterey system over about 69% of Sand City; the rest, about 31%, is ground inside the city limits that no published water service area reaches - not a rival utility, and not necessarily unserved. The City itself says that "All water service within Sand City is provided by the California American Water Company (Cal-Am) Monterey Water System."

Sources

California American Water, Rule No. 16

Also quoted:

Checked

What California American Water, Monterey 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, Monterey 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
37,676
Still unclassified
0 (0.00%)
Across California, 9.2% of service lines are unclassified.
Share of service lines still unclassified
  • California American Water, Monterey0.00%
  • 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 99% of Pacific Grove's land inside the boundary it maps for California American Water, Monterey. Measured 25 Sep 2026.
  • 37,676 is the whole of California American Water, Monterey's reported inventory, not this city alone. The State's file records no city for these lines, so they cannot be counted per city.
  • Classified does not mean inspected, and this system inspected less than most. California American Water, Monterey established 7.6% 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.
California American Water, Monterey: official site

Where else this answer applies

California American Water, Monterey also supplies the places below, and the statement above governs them too:

Each of them settles the sewer lateral separately, often under a different authority from this one.

Your other pipe: the sewer lateral

For the sewer lateral, Pacific Grove says:

In Pacific Grove the lateral is the owner's property all the way to the main. Section 9.20.030 of the City's code provides that "All laterals from the building wall to the connection to the sewer main are the property of the owner of the connected building."

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 Pacific Grove, CA

Look up a specific address

This page describes what applies to properties in Pacific Grove 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