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Who pays for the sewer lateral in Seaside, CA

Which part of the pipe is yours

your buildingproperty linesidewalkstreetmain
The thick length is yours.

If something’s wrong

If a repair needs a permit or an inspection

  • Before work on the pipe · Permit

    Who issues it:
    City of Seaside city engineer or building inspector
    What it covers:
    any excavation in or under the surface of a street, alley, sidewalk, public way or public place in the city

    Seaside Municipal Code section 12.04.010 provides that "It is unlawful for any person, firm, or corporation to make any excavation in or under the surface of any street, alley, sidewalk, public way or public place in the city without first obtaining a permit to do so from the city engineer or building inspector of the city". Both of the city's sewer collectors leave the lateral to the owner as far as the main, including any length under the street, so this is the permit an owner needs to reach that part of their own pipe. It is the City's permit and applies whichever collector serves the property.

The repair rule in full, with its sources

No rule on file here is specific to selling, buying, remodelling or adding a unit; that does not mean none exists.

Who to call first about the sewer lateral

BelowGrid has no first-call guidance on file from Seaside about the sewer lateral.

Seaside: official site(opens in a new tab)The documents this answer is built on

Who is responsible for which part

In Seaside the sewer lateral is the property owner's to maintain as far as the main, whichever of the city's two sewer collectors serves the property. The City's own code does not say who maintains a lateral. Seaside County Sanitation District, which runs the collection system serving the city, says on its page that "the lateral line that connects the individual home or business to the main line is the responsibility of the property owner". Marina Coast Water District, which collects in the former Fort Ord, provides in its code that "Side sewers shall be maintained by the owner of the property served thereby."

The property owner
The lateral from the building to the main. Seaside County Sanitation District's code divides it into a house sewer, "a sewer line beginning two feet outside the foundation of any building and running to the property line", and a lateral sewer, "that portion of a sewer between a building and collecting main which lies within a public street", and the District's Sewer System Management Plan puts all of it on the owner: "Sewer laterals are owned, operated and maintained by individual property owners from the wye connection at the sewer main, back to each building." Marina Coast Water District's code defines the side sewer as "the sewer line beginning two feet outside the foundation wall of any building and terminating at the main sewer and includes the building sewer and lateral sewer together".

What else is worth knowing

Nothing splits the lateral under either collector; the main is the dividing point. Neither collector says in terms who owns the fitting where the lateral joins the main - Seaside County Sanitation District starts the owner's pipe "from the wye connection", Marina Coast Water District ends it at the main - so ask the collector before paying for work on the joint itself. Seaside County Sanitation District says it "does not own or maintain any sewer laterals within the service area other than laterals on District owned property." Marina Coast Water District's code names Seaside among the "land use jurisdictions within the Ord Community service area, including the cities of Seaside, Del Rey Oaks, Marina, and Monterey", and its sewer system management plan says it provides "potable water and wastewater conveyance services" there, "within the former Fort Ord Army Base (Ord Community)". If your property is on the former Fort Ord, ask Seaside County Sanitation District or Marina Coast Water District which of them serves it. The Sanitation District's charges are billed by Monterey One Water, formerly the Monterey Regional Water Pollution Control Agency, not in the District's own name. The two collectors each issue their own permit to build a lateral or connect to the sewer.

Sources

Seaside County Sanitation District

Also quoted:

Checked

What is required

  • Before work on the pipePermit
    Who issues it:
    City of Seaside city engineer or building inspector
    What it covers:
    any excavation in or under the surface of a street, alley, sidewalk, public way or public place in the city

    Seaside Municipal Code section 12.04.010 provides that "It is unlawful for any person, firm, or corporation to make any excavation in or under the surface of any street, alley, sidewalk, public way or public place in the city without first obtaining a permit to do so from the city engineer or building inspector of the city". Both of the city's sewer collectors leave the lateral to the owner as far as the main, including any length under the street, so this is the permit an owner needs to reach that part of their own pipe. It is the City's permit and applies whichever collector serves the property.

    What to do: Before digging in the street to reach a sewer lateral in Seaside, apply to the City engineer for an excavation permit, find out whether the street was paved in the last five years or slurry sealed in the last three, and ask the collector that serves the property - Seaside County Sanitation District or, in the former Fort Ord, Marina Coast Water District - what its own permit requires. Keep the permit papers for a year after final repaving, because the permittee answers for any settlement of the trench.

    Why this matters

    The permit comes with a bond to cover restoring the surface, plans approved by the public works department, an application fee and a hold-harmless agreement, and section 12.04.050 asks for liability, workers' compensation and automobile insurance certificates. Starting without one costs more: under section 12.04.030, "if work requiring an excavation permit is begun without a permit, application fee shall be doubled as a penalty". The patch stays the permittee's for a year: "Permittees shall be responsible for any settlement of their trenches for a period of one year following the date of final repaving". Recently surfaced streets are closed to cuts: "No permits shall be issued to excavate or cut in a public street that has been paved/overlaid in the past five years or slurry sealed in the past three years except in the case of emergencies, or when the city engineer grants an exemption." Separately, the collector issues its own permit to build a lateral or connect to the sewer - Seaside County Sanitation District under its code section 4.05.050, or Marina Coast Water District, in the former Fort Ord, under its section 5.16.010.

    Current wording dates from · Checked

    Seaside Municipal Code section 12.04.010, Permit

    Also quoted:

What this page cannot tell you

  • No assistance or grant programme has been reviewed for this jurisdiction yet.

Who governs and serves this area

Jurisdiction
Seaside (municipality)
Sewer service

How this compares to neighbouring cities

1 of the 5 nearest cities draws the line somewhere else. Each authority publishes only its own rule.

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

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Look up a specific address

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

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