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Who owns the water service line in Corpus Christi, TX

Which part of the pipe is yours

  • Water service line

    Yours from your property line to your building — if certain conditions are met

    Why, and what to do
  • Sewer lateral

    Yours from your property line to your building — if certain conditions are met

    Why, and what to do
your buildingproperty linesidewalkstreetmain
The thick length is yours. A dashed marker means the position depends on your property — see below.

If something’s wrong

Who to call first about the water service line

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

The documents this answer is built on

Who is responsible for which part

Corpus Christi keeps the tap, service and meter it installs; the owner keeps the privately-owned service line on private property. Section 55-70(7) of the Corpus Christi Code of Ordinances provides that "The entire installation will remain the property of the city and will be maintained by the city" and that "Maintenance of privately-owned service lines, or parts of service lines, on private property will be the responsibility of the owner, occupant or consumer." This is Corpus Christi's own statement.

Corpus Christi
The installation the City makes for a tap fee: the tap, the service installed to a standard location, and the necessary meter. It stays City property and is maintained by the City for as long as the occupant wants City service.
The property owner
Privately-owned service lines, or parts of service lines, on private property. Failure to maintain them can lead the City to discontinue the service.

What decides which applies

Section 55-70(7) divides the line by ownership and by private property rather than naming the meter, so where your meter sits on your own land, ask the City whether the pipe between the meter and the property line is yours. About 84% of Corpus Christi's land is inside the City's water system as the Texas Water Development Board maps it, and this answer applies only inside that area. Other systems serve the rest under their own rules: Nueces County WCID 4 about 4% and Corpus Christi Naval Air Station about 2%; about 8% of the city's land falls on no mapped supplier. Check the name on your water bill.

Sources

Corpus Christi Code of Ordinances section 55-70, Adoption of rules

Checked

What the pipe is made of

Texas publishes no statewide inventory of what service lines are made of. Each water system filed its own with the State, and federal rules require the utility to make it public, so the utility is the place to ask what is recorded for this address.

Corpus Christi: official site

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.
  • This answer applies inside the area the State maps for Corpus Christi's own water system, which does not follow the city limits: some addresses in the city are served by another supplier, and some outside it are served by the city. An address search checks which side an address is on.
  • 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.
Corpus Christi: official site

Your other pipe: the sewer lateral

For the sewer lateral, Corpus Christi says:

Corpus Christi installs and maintains the house service line from the sewer main to the property or easement line; the owner has the part on the property. Section 55-71(a) of the Corpus Christi Code of Ordinances provides that "The city or an authorized contractor shall install and maintain all house service lines for the city sewer mains to the nearest property or easement lines".

Both pipes divide in the same place here — the property line.

Same trench, separate authorities, decided separately.

Who pays for the sewer lateral in Corpus Christi, TX

Look up a specific address

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

Search for an address