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Who pays for the sewer lateral in Sacramento Area Sewer District, CA

Which part of the pipe is yours

  • Sewer lateral

    Yours from the cleanout to your building — if certain conditions are met

    Why, and what to do
your buildingproperty linesidewalkstreetmain
The thick length is yours. A dashed marker means the position depends on your property — see below.

If something’s wrong

Repairing, selling or remodelling? BelowGrid has no sewer lateral permit or inspection rule on file for Sacramento Area Sewer District; that does not mean none exists.

Who to call first about the sewer lateral

BelowGrid has no first-call guidance on file from Sacramento Area Sewer District about the sewer lateral.

Sacramento Area Sewer District: official site(opens in a new tab)The documents this answer is built on

Who is responsible for which part

The District keeps the lower lateral. Where the District owns the main, it "is responsible for clearing stoppages and for inspecting, maintaining, and repairing the lower lateral, District cleanouts, manholes and main line" - and it repairs and replaces the wye as well. Yours is the upper lateral, backwater valve included. The dividing point is "typically ... at the District cleanout", and the ordinance names two further positions for properties that do not have one.

Sacramento Area Sewer District
The lower lateral, the District cleanouts, the manholes, the main line and the wye - and blockages in all of it. Section 2.10.1 provides that "if the District owns the main line, the District is responsible for clearing stoppages and for inspecting, maintaining, and repairing the lower lateral, District cleanouts, manholes and main line", and that "the District is responsible for repairing and replacing all District wyes". Where the District does not own the main line, none of that applies: it then "has no responsibility for clearing stoppages or for inspecting, maintaining, or repairing the main line, cleanouts, or lower laterals".
The property owner
The upper lateral and the backwater valve on it. Section 2.10.1 gives the owner "the sole responsibility for clearing stoppages, inspecting, maintaining, and repairing the upper lateral, including backwater valve" - and says what that is for, requiring it be kept in a "condition that avoids negative impacts to the operation and maintenance of the District's system". The ordinance's own standard for that condition is that "the upper lateral should be kept free from roots, grease deposits, and other solids that may impede the flow", that "all pipes and joints should be tight, sound, and free from structural defects", and that no stormwater drains should be connected to it.

What decides which applies

There is not one dividing point here, there are three, and which applies to your house depends on what is in the ground outside it. The ordinance puts them in order: "typically, the responsibility delineation between the upper and lower lateral is at the District cleanout. In the absence of a District cleanout, the responsibility delineation is at the limit of the District or other public sewer easement where the District maintains the sewer facilities. In the absence of a District cleanout and District or other public sewer easement ... the responsibility delineation is at the limit of the public right-of-way or public utility easement (PUE), whichever is the shortest distance as measured from the connecting District main line or manhole." There is a fourth case for shared runs in older subdivisions: where a lateral crosses a public utility easement on other properties first and no private agreement governs it, the delineation is at the limit of that easement. And one condition sits above all of them. Everything the District undertakes assumes it owns the main: where it does not, it "has no responsibility for clearing stoppages or for inspecting, maintaining, or repairing the main line, cleanouts, or lower laterals", and section 2.10.2 puts a privately owned sewer entirely on the owner. So the first question to ask about an address here is not where the cleanout is but whether the main in the street is the District's.

Sources

Sacramento Area Sewer District, Sewer Ordinance SDI-0079, adopted 27 April 2022 and effective 27 May 2022 by its own cover page

Checked

What this page cannot tell you

  • No local requirement has been published here yet. This jurisdiction may well have some - ask it directly.
  • No assistance or grant programme has been reviewed for this jurisdiction yet.
  • BelowGrid holds no separate map of sewer providers here. This page gives Sacramento Area Sewer District's own answer, for the area inside the boundary BelowGrid holds for it; look up an address to see whose answer applies there.

Who governs and serves this area

Jurisdiction
Sacramento Area Sewer District (special district)
Sewer service
No separate map of sewer providers is held here. This page gives Sacramento Area Sewer District’s own answer, for the area inside the boundary BelowGrid holds for it. Look up an address to see whose answer applies there, or check the name on your sewer bill.

Where else this answer applies

The same authorities settle this in the place below too:

It gets its answer from the same authorities.

How this compares to neighbouring districts

3 of the 4 nearest districts draw the line somewhere else. Each authority publishes only its own rule.

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

Compare the rules city by city

Nearby districts and further reading

Look up a specific address

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

Search for an address