Who pays for the sewer lateral in Paramount, CA
Which part of the pipe is yours
Yours all the way to the main under the road
Why, and what to doYours from the meter to your building
Why, and what to do
If something’s wrong
If a repair needs a permit or an inspection
- Who issues it:
- the County Road Commissioner, named in Paramount's own streets title as the officer who issues it
- What it covers:
- any excavation, fill or obstruction, or other work of any nature, in, over, along, across or through any highway
Paramount Municipal Code section 12.08.010 provides that "Every person is guilty of a misdemeanor who, before obtaining a permit from the County Road Commissioner to do so" makes or causes to be made "any excavation, fill or obstruction of, or lays, constructs or repairs any curb, sidewalk, gutter, driveway, roadway surface, retaining wall, storm drain or culvert or other work of any nature in, over, along, across or through any highway". A lateral repair under the road is an excavation in the highway, and the owner's run reaches the main-line sewer there.
Who to call first about the sewer lateral
Paramount: official site(opens in a new tab)The documents this answer is built on
Who is responsible for which part
Paramount writes no sewer ownership rule of its own and borrows the County's. Section 13.08.010 of its municipal code adopts "Title 20, Utilities, Division 2 of the Los Angeles County Code, commonly referred to as the Sanitary Sewers and Industrial Waste Ordinance as amended July 27, 1989" as the City's ordinance. Inside that adopted division, section 20.24.080 provides that all house laterals "shall be maintained by the owner of the property served in a safe and sanitary condition", and section 20.20.130 defines a "house lateral" as "that part of the sewer piping within the street or right-of-way which extends from the property or sewer right-of-way line to a construction with the main-line sewer". The length the City's ordinance puts on the owner is the length under the road.
- The property owner
- The run under the street, named as such. Section 20.24.080 assigns house laterals to "the owner of the property served", and section 20.20.130 places that lateral in the street, from the property line to the main-line sewer. Section 20.20.220 defines the main-line sewer independently - one "in which changes in alignment and grade occur only at manholes" - so the owner's length ends where that pipe begins.
What else is worth knowing
Sources
Paramount Municipal Code section 13.08.010, Adoption of County sewer and industrial waste regulationWhat the rules say
Most relevant if you have received a notice from the city or district
No rule on file here is specific to a notice from the city or district; that does not mean none exists.
Also in force here
- Who issues it:
- the County Road Commissioner, named in Paramount's own streets title as the officer who issues it
- What it covers:
- any excavation, fill or obstruction, or other work of any nature, in, over, along, across or through any highway
Paramount Municipal Code section 12.08.010 provides that "Every person is guilty of a misdemeanor who, before obtaining a permit from the County Road Commissioner to do so" makes or causes to be made "any excavation, fill or obstruction of, or lays, constructs or repairs any curb, sidewalk, gutter, driveway, roadway surface, retaining wall, storm drain or culvert or other work of any nature in, over, along, across or through any highway". A lateral repair under the road is an excavation in the highway, and the owner's run reaches the main-line sewer there.
What to do: Ask the permit office whether the plat can be waived for your repair under section 12.16.030 before paying anyone to draw one, because a lateral repair is the case that section was written for. Keep the permit and the contractor's paperwork after the job is finished - section 12.16.090 can send a later resurfacing bill to the permittee if the trench settles. If a blockage is backing sewage into the house out of hours, the emergency route applies, and the clock for the permit starts when the office next opens.
Paramount Municipal Code chapter 12.08, Highway PermitsWhy this matters
Two provisions make this cheaper and faster for a lateral repair than for most street work, and both are easy to miss. Section 12.16.030 lets the permit officer drop a paperwork step for exactly this kind of job - "When excavations are made for service connections or for the location of trouble in conduits or pipes, or for making repairs thereto, the County Road Commissioner may waive the filing of a plat". And section 12.16.100 allows an emergency dig to start first, provided the person "obtains a permit therefor within one day after the offices of the Commissioner are first opened subsequent to the making of such excavation". The cost that outlasts the job is in section 12.16.090: if the road surface has to be repaired again because of settlement from your trench, "the permittee shall pay to the County Road Commissioner the cost of such additional repairs".
What this page cannot tell you
- No assistance or grant programme has been reviewed for this jurisdiction yet.
- No sewer service territory has been mapped for this area, so BelowGrid cannot say who serves an individual address.
Who governs and serves this area
- Jurisdiction
- Paramount (municipality)
- Sewer service
- No map of sewer providers is held here. BelowGrid cannot say which sewer provider serves an individual address.
How this compares to neighbouring cities
1 of the 8 nearest cities draws the line somewhere else. Each authority publishes only its own rule.
Your other pipe: the water service line
The drinking water line coming into your property is a separate pipe, run by a separate authority, and who is responsible for it is decided separately. Your sewer lateral is yours to the main; your water line stops being yours at the meter.
Who owns the water service line in ParamountNearby cities and further reading
Look up a specific address
This page describes what applies to properties in Paramount in general. To see which authorities serve one address, and what records exist for it, search for it.
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