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Who owns the water service line in Reedley, CA

Which part of the pipe is yours

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

If something’s wrong

Who to call first about the water service line

BelowGrid has no first-call guidance on file from Reedley about the water service line.

The documents this answer is built on

Who is responsible for which part

Reedley's code splits the water system at the City's meter. Section 8-1-13-4 provides that "The customer's system shall include any and all water infrastructure on the customer's side of the city's water meter", and section 8-1-7 that "Each consumer must keep his own service pipe, valves and faucets in order, free from leakage". The City's standard service drawings end the City's responsibility for a water service at the meter coupling. This is Reedley's own statement.

Reedley
The City's system, which runs up to the meter: the code describes it as "all those facilities of the water system under complete control of the city, from the source of supply up to the point where the customer's system begins". The City's standard drawings for one-inch and two-inch services (W-4, revised June 2021, and W-5) place the end of the City's responsibility for a service at the coupling on the meter's outlet. The meter itself is the City's: "Meters shall be owned by the city and be replaced at its expense after the payment of the charges established therefor."
The property owner
Everything on the customer's side of the City's meter, including the customer's own service pipe, which each consumer must keep free from leakage. The same drawings state that the City is not responsible for the customer's shut-off valve or for other valves or piping on the customer's side of the meter. The City's Water Division says that "All customers will now have a special valve placed in the meter box on the house side for their convenience to turn water on or off."

What decides which applies

The line is the meter, which the code has "installed behind the curb or within a public utility easement"; the City's side ends at the coupling on its outlet. Two cases move the line back to the main. "Within a gated or private community all water infrastructure, with the exception of the city's water meter, located within the private property or gated community including all water piping, valves, and hydrants, beginning at the point of connection to the city's water distribution main shall be the sole responsibility of the customer(s)." And "In the event that a city water meter does not exist, the customer's system shall begin at the point of connection to the city's water main pipe." The coupling as the end of the City's responsibility comes from the drawings, not from the code, and the drawings are construction standards for new services, so ask the City before paying for work on the fittings in the meter box. The State's register puts the City's system over about 83% of Reedley's land and no other system over any of it; the remaining 17% or so is ground inside the city limits that no published water service area reaches - not a rival utility, and not necessarily unserved. Check the name on your water bill.

Sources

Reedley City Code section 8-1-13-4, Requirements

Also quoted:

Checked

What Reedley 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.

Reedley has classified less of its network than most of California: 95.0% of its service lines are still unclassified, against 9.2% statewide.

Service lines reported
6,399
Still unclassified
6,082 (95.0%)
Across California, 9.2% of service lines are unclassified.
Galvanized requiring replacement
2
Galvanized pipe that sat downstream of a lead or unknown line, which federal rules require to be replaced.
Share of service lines still unclassified
  • Reedley95.0%
  • 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 83% of Reedley's land inside the boundary it maps for the city's own water system. A share of land is not a share of homes: open space counts the same as a dense block. Measured 26 Sep 2026.
  • Unclassified means nobody has established what the pipe is made of. It does not mean lead was found.
  • Classified does not mean inspected, and this system inspected less than most. Reedley established 0.0% 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.
Reedley: official site

Your other pipe: the sewer lateral

For the sewer lateral, Reedley gives the opposite answer to the one above:

Reedley puts the building sewer on the owner all the way to the main. Section 8-3-3 provides that "Building sewers between the building drains and the main sewer shall not be considered appurtenances to or part of the main sewer and the responsibility for maintenance of said building sewer shall be that of the owner or person in charge of the premises served by said building sewer."

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 Reedley, CA

Look up a specific address

This page describes what applies to properties in Reedley 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