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Who owns the water service line in Waco, TX

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 Waco about the water service line.

The documents this answer is built on

Who is responsible for which part

Waco maintains the water service connection from the main to the curb, including the meter. Section 26-76 of the Waco Code of Ordinances provides that the part "extending from the main to the curb, including the corporation cock, service line, curb stop, stop-cock box, and the meter and meter-box, shall be under the control and maintenance of the city". This is Waco's own statement.

Waco
The service connection from the main to the curb: the corporation cock, service line, curb stop, stop-cock box, meter and meter box.
The property owner
The service pipe from the meter to the point of use and the fixtures on it. Section 26-79 makes it the property of the owner of the premises, to be kept in good repair and protected from frost.

What else is worth knowing

The dividing point is the meter. About 93% of Waco'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; no other mapped system covers as much as 1% of the city. Check the name on your water bill.

Sources

Waco Code of Ordinances section 26-76, Control

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.

Waco: 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 Waco'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.
Waco: official site

Your other pipe: the sewer lateral

For the sewer lateral, Waco says:

Waco owns and maintains the sewer service line from the main to the public/private cleanout; the owner has the line from the cleanout to the building. Section 5.9(A) of the City of Waco Water and Sanitary Sewer Design Manual (2023) provides that service lines from the main to that cleanout "shall be owned and maintained by the City", and that service lines from the cleanout to the point of use "are considered private and shall be owned and maintained in good working condition by the property owner."

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

Same trench, separate authorities, decided separately.

Who pays for the sewer lateral in Waco, TX

Look up a specific address

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

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