Who owns the water service line in San Leandro, CA
San Leandro's water comes from EBMUD, and EBMUD draws its line more precisely than anyone else here: it repairs "leaks on the street side of the meter and ... the meter itself, including the threads on the customer's side of the meter", and everything past that is the customer's. That is the opposite shape to the city's sewer answer, where the owner's pipe runs all the way under the road to the main. This is San Leandro's own statement.
Which part of the pipe is yours
Yours from the meter to your building
Why, and what to doYours all the way to the main under the road
Why, and what to do
Where the responsibility divides
- San Leandro
- Everything to the meter, and the meter down to the threads on your side of it. EBMUD states that it "is responsible for the repair of leaks on the street side of the meter and for repairing the meter itself, including the threads on the customer's side of the meter", and that it "repairs leaks to its water meters and water mains". No cleanout condition, prior inspection or programme membership is attached to that.
- The property owner
- Everything on the customer's side of the meter. EBMUD states that "customers are responsible for maintaining and repairing the line that runs from the meter to their residence or building", and itemises what that covers: "leaks on the customer's side of the meter, including the pipe between the meter and the building, the irrigation system, or indoor plumbing, are the responsibility of the customer".
- What else is worth knowing
- The threads are the line, and it is worth knowing because that is exactly where a leak tends to show and where two plumbers will disagree. EBMUD keeps the meter and the threads on your side of it; the pipe that screws on to those threads is yours. Two further things. Your two pipes divide in very different places: the water line stops being yours at the meter near the boundary, while your sewer lateral stays yours all the way under the road to the main, so a quotation for "the line to the street" means different work depending on which one is meant. And if you are offered a service line protection plan on the strength of EBMUD's own page, read who is selling it - EBMUD points customers at "optional coverage plans, offered by SLWA Insurance Services (SLWA), an independent company" and says plainly that it "does not endorse any coverage provider". That is insurance from a third party, not a utility scheme.
What this does not 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.
- This authority's service line inventory - the record of which pipes are lead, and where - has not been matched here yet. Ask the utility for yours.
Your other pipe has a different answer
For the sewer lateral, San Leandro gives the opposite answer to the one above:
The lateral is the owner's the whole way, and San Leandro is unusually plain about the part under the road: plumbing and laterals "on both private property and within the public right-of-way" must be kept in working order, and service laterals "stretch from their home's connection all the way to the public sewer link". The City maintains the main and nothing else.
Your sewer lateral is yours to the main; your water line stops being yours at the meter.
Who pays for the sewer lateral in San Leandro, CAHow this compares across California
- Why your two pipes disagree — the places where the sewer and water authorities contradict each other about the run beneath the road.
- Which water systems know what is buried — how much of each California system’s network the utility can actually identify.