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Who owns the water service line in San Antonio, TX

Which part of the pipe is yours

  • Water service line

    Yours from the meter to your building

    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

SAWS 210-704-SAWS (7297)

When to call: a leak that appears to come from the SAWS water or sewer system

Hours, after-hours and sources

Who is responsible for which part

Who to call first

SAWS

When to call: a leak that appears to come from the SAWS water or sewer system

210-704-SAWS (7297)

Answered: any time of day or night

Source

San Antonio Water System (SAWS) keeps the water service line and meter from the main to the meter; the owner has the yard piping beyond it. Section 8.6 of the SAWS Utility Service Regulations provides that "SAWS will maintain, repair and replace water service lines and meters from the distribution main to the outlet side of the meter, including the outlet side meter coupling." This is San Antonio's own statement.

San Antonio
The water service line and meter from the distribution main to the outlet side of the meter, including the outlet-side meter coupling.
The property owner
The pressure-reducing valve, backflow device, yard piping and any on-site infrastructure from the outlet side of the meter coupling, under section 8.6.

What else is worth knowing

The dividing point is the outlet side of the meter coupling. About 97% of San Antonio's land is inside SAWS'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, the largest JBSA - Sam Houston (about 1%). Check the name on your water bill.

Sources

San Antonio Water System Utility Service Regulations (May 23, 2024), section 8.6

Also quoted:

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.

San Antonio: 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 San Antonio'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.
San Antonio: official site

Your other pipe: the sewer lateral

For the sewer lateral, San Antonio says:

San Antonio Water System (SAWS), the City's water and sewer utility, keeps the sewer lateral from the main to the property line; the owner has the rest. Section 8.6 of the SAWS Utility Service Regulations provides that "SAWS will maintain, repair and replace the wastewater laterals from the wastewater main to the property line or wastewater easement line."

Your sewer lateral is yours to the property line; your water line stops being yours at the meter.

Same trench, separate authorities, decided separately.

Who pays for the sewer lateral in San Antonio, TX

Look up a specific address

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

Search for an address