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Who owns the water service line in Arlington, WA

Which part of the pipe is yours

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 Arlington about the water service line.

The documents this answer is built on

Who is responsible for which part

Arlington's water utility maintains the public water system, which ends at the customer side of the meter; owners maintain their private water systems. Section 13.04.290 of the Arlington Municipal Code provides that "Owners of private water systems are solely responsible for maintenance and operation of such private systems." This is Arlington's own statement.

Arlington
The public water system: the pipes, meters, valves and appurtenances "owned by the utility for the delivery of potable water". Section 13.04.290 provides that "The utility has responsibility for maintenance of the public water system unless otherwise provided by agreement, local ordinance or state law."
The property owner
The private water system, which section 13.04.010 defines as "any part of the water system that is not part of the public water system", including the facilities on the customer side of the meter.

What decides which applies

The code defines the public water system by what the utility owns and says it "does not include those facilities located on the customer side of meters"; it does not say in terms that every pipe on the street side of the meter is the utility's. Pressure reducing valves are installed, owned and maintained by the customer. About 87% of Arlington's land is inside the City's water service area as the Washington State Department of Health maps it, and this answer applies only inside that area. Other systems serve the rest under their own rules: Marysville Utilities about 10% and Arlington Terrace about 2%. Check the name on your water bill.

Sources

Arlington Municipal Code section 13.04.290

Also quoted:

Checked

What the pipe is made of

Washington 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.

Arlington: 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 Arlington'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.
Arlington: official site

Your other pipe: the sewer lateral

For the sewer lateral, Arlington says:

Arlington splits the side sewer stub by kind of work. Section 13.08.230(a) of the Arlington Municipal Code provides that "Property owners are solely responsible for operation and maintenance of private sewer systems, including the side sewer, as well as the side sewer stub", while section 13.08.230(b) gives the utility the repair and replacement of side sewer stubs located within a city right of way or in a utility easement.

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

Same trench, separate authorities, decided separately.

Who pays for the sewer lateral in Arlington, WA

Look up a specific address

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

Search for an address