Who pays for the sewer lateral in Salinas, CA
Which part of the pipe is yours
Yours all the way to the main under the road
Why, and what to do
If something’s wrong
If a repair needs a permit or an inspection
- Who issues it:
- City of Salinas
- What it covers:
- uncovering, connecting to, altering or disturbing any public sewer, and separately installing a building sewer
Salinas requires a written permit before anyone may "uncover, make any connection with or opening into, use, alter or disturb any public sewer or appurtenances thereof", and a building sewer permit before installing a building sewer. The connection itself has to be witnessed: the applicant "shall notify the director and the chief building official when the building sewer is ready for inspection and connection to the public sewer", and "the connection shall be made during the presence and under the inspection of the chief building official or their representatives".
Buying or selling?
No rule on file here is specific to selling or buying; that does not mean none exists.
Planning work?
The remodelling rule in full, with its sourcesWho to call first about the sewer lateral
Salinas: official site(opens in a new tab)The documents this answer is built on
Who is responsible for which part
The whole pipe is yours to the City main, and Salinas is unusually blunt about the commonest way it fails. Because connections "are required to be gastight and watertight", the code provides that "infiltration of tree roots into a building sewer lateral are presumed to be caused by improper installation and shall be repaired by the property owner ... at no cost to the city, regardless of whether the building sewer is located on public or private property". More generally, "all costs and expense incident to the installation, connection and maintenance of the building sewer shall be borne by the owner".
- The property owner
- The whole building sewer, from the premises to the City's main, on public ground as well as private. Section 36-13 provides that "all costs and expense incident to the installation, connection and maintenance of the building sewer shall be borne by the owner", and that the owner "shall indemnify the city from any loss or damage that may directly or indirectly be occasioned by the installation of the building sewer". The code defines a building sewer as "a sewer conveying wastewater from the premises of a user to a community sewer", and a community sewer as "the wastewater collection systems owned and operated by the city" - so the defined length runs all the way to the City's system.
What else is worth knowing
Sources
Salinas City Code, Chapter 36 Industrial Waste, Wastewater Collection and DischargeWhat 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:
- City of Salinas
- What it covers:
- uncovering, connecting to, altering or disturbing any public sewer, and separately installing a building sewer
Salinas requires a written permit before anyone may "uncover, make any connection with or opening into, use, alter or disturb any public sewer or appurtenances thereof", and a building sewer permit before installing a building sewer. The connection itself has to be witnessed: the applicant "shall notify the director and the chief building official when the building sewer is ready for inspection and connection to the public sewer", and "the connection shall be made during the presence and under the inspection of the chief building official or their representatives".
What to do: Get the building sewer permit before work starts, and make sure whoever does the work books the inspection rather than assuming it - the connection has to be made with the chief building official or their representative present, so an unwitnessed connection is one that may have to be reopened. Ask for a copy of the signed inspection record when the job is done and keep it with the deeds.
Salinas City Code, Chapter 36 Industrial Waste, Wastewater Collection and DischargeWhy this matters
This inspection is worth more in Salinas than the same clause is worth elsewhere, because of what the code does with it later. Connections must be "gastight and watertight", and the code then provides that root infiltration is "presumed to be caused by improper installation and shall be repaired by the property owner", at no cost to the city and regardless of whether the pipe is on public or private ground. The inspection under section 36-19 is the single occasion on which the City looks at how your joint was actually made. Keep what comes out of it. It costs nothing to file and it is the only document you will ever hold about the question that presumption turns on.
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
- Salinas (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 5 nearest cities draws the line somewhere else. Each authority publishes only its own rule.
Nearby cities and further reading
Look up a specific address
This page describes what applies to properties in Salinas in general. To see which authorities serve one address, and what records exist for it, search for it.
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