Skip to main content
BelowGrid

Who owns the water service line in Westminster, 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 Westminster about the water service line.

The documents this answer is built on

Who is responsible for which part

The City supplies the water across the city and owns and maintains the water service and the meter. Section 13.08.030 provides that "All water services and water meters connected to the water system are and shall remain at all times the property of the city, and the city shall maintain and repair them when necessary". This is Westminster's own statement.

Westminster
The water service - the pipe from the main to the meter - and the meter itself, as property and as a repair duty. Section 13.08.050 adds that the City "shall determine the location, size, type and make of mains, valves, fire hydrants, fittings, consumer services and all other appurtenances", so where the service runs and where the meter sits are the City's decisions too.
The property owner
The pipework from the meter into the building. Westminster's code states the City's side and does not write out the customer's in a sentence of its own: what the City owns and maintains is the water service and the meter, and the plumbing beyond the meter is neither of those, so nothing in the code makes it the City's.

What else is worth knowing

Two things are worth knowing. First, the handover is stated by the City's side alone - the code names what the City keeps and stops there, rather than saying in terms that everything past the meter is yours - so if a leak sits right at the meter, ask the City which side of it the fault is on before you pay anyone. Second, the City's duty does not cover damage the customer causes: meter "Replacements, repairs or adjustments" made necessary "by any act of malice, carelessness or neglect of the consumer" are billed to the consumer. The City's system covers almost all of the city; section 13.08.010 creates it "to serve the area within the city".

Sources

Westminster Municipal Code section 13.08.030, Meter

Also quoted:

Checked

What Westminster 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.

Westminster 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
24,450
Still unclassified
0 (0.00%)
Across California, 9.2% of service lines are unclassified.
Share of service lines still unclassified
  • Westminster0.00%
  • 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 99% of Westminster's land inside the boundary it maps for the city's own water system. Measured 25 Sep 2026.
  • Classified does not mean inspected, and this system inspected less than most. Westminster established 7.3% 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.
Westminster: 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 Westminster, CA

Look up a specific address

This page describes what applies to properties in Westminster 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