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Who owns the water service line in Sunnyvale, CA

Which part of the pipe is yours

your buildingproperty linesidewalkstreetmain
The thick length is yours.

If something’s wrong

Who to call first about the water service line

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

The documents this answer is built on

Who is responsible for which part

The City supplies the water, installs the pipe from its main to the meter at its own expense, and keeps the meter as its property. Section 12.24.080(b) provides that "The city shall, at its own expense, furnish and install service pipe of suitable capacity, from its mains to the meter for service of premises abutting upon a public street, along which it has a water main", and subsection (e) puts the rest on the customer: "The consumer shall install that portion of the service from the meter to his or her premises, the expense of same to be paid by the consumer". This is Sunnyvale's own statement.

Sunnyvale
The run from the main to the meter, which the City installs at its own expense, and the meter, which it owns. Section 12.24.080(c) provides that meters and appliances installed by the City "shall continue to be the property of the city, and may be repaired, replaced or removed by the city at any time". Subsection (a) places the meter, wherever practicable, "in suitable meter boxes, located in the sidewalk".
The property owner
Everything from the meter to the building, owned and kept by you. Section 12.24.080(e) provides that the materials the consumer furnishes for that length "will, at all times, be and remain the property of the consumer, and when necessary, will be maintained and repaired by the consumer", and section 12.24.070(b) repeats the duty for everything on the premises: owners "must keep their service pipe, stopcocks and all apparatus connected therewith on said premises in good repair at their own expense".

What else is worth knowing

Read the City's side for what it promises and what it does not. The code gives the City title to the meter and a right to repair it - the meter "may be repaired, replaced or removed by the city at any time" - but it never states a duty to maintain the pipe from the main to the meter, as opposed to installing it. So a leak on the street side of the meter is the City's pipe and the right place to start, but the code stops short of promising the repair. The owner's side is stated plainly, and so is damage: subsection (d) charges the consumer for damage to the City's meter or pipes "caused by the carelessness or neglect of the consumer", including from hot water or steam. Before relying on any of this, check the name on your water bill, because not every address in the city is the City's. The State's own service-area register puts a small part of the city in California Water Service's Los Altos Suburban system and another small part on the NASA Ames Research Center system at Moffett Field. If either bills you, its own rules govern your service rather than these sections. The same register puts the City's system over about 98% of Sunnyvale's land.

Sources

Sunnyvale Municipal Code section 12.24.080, Meters and appliances

Also quoted:

Checked

What Sunnyvale 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.

Sunnyvale has classified more of its service lines than most of California: 0.00% of its lines are unclassified, against 9.2% statewide.

Service lines reported
28,509
Still unclassified
0 (0.00%)
Across California, 9.2% of service lines are unclassified.
Share of service lines still unclassified
  • Sunnyvale0.00%
  • 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 98% of Sunnyvale's land inside the boundary it maps for the city's own water system. Within the same city limits it also maps "CWSC LOS ALTOS SUBURBAN" (3%). Measured 25 Sep 2026.
  • Classified does not mean inspected, and this system inspected less than most. Sunnyvale established 4.0% 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.
Sunnyvale: official site

Your other pipe: the sewer lateral

The sewer lateral leaving your property is a separate pipe, run by a separate authority, and who is responsible for it is decided separately. In many places the two answers are opposites.

Sewer lateral requirements in Sunnyvale, CA

Look up a specific address

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

Search for an address

How this compares across California