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Who owns the water service line in Bainbridge Island, WA

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 Bainbridge Island about the water service line.

The documents this answer is built on

Who is responsible for which part

On Bainbridge Island the City makes the water service connection and keeps the fittings it includes; the owner keeps the service pipe from the meter setter to the premises. Section 13.08.030(A) of the Bainbridge Island Municipal Code provides that "The service connection fittings will be within the control and maintenance responsibility of the city." This is Bainbridge Island's own statement.

Bainbridge Island
The service connection, which section 13.08.030(A) says "shall include the connection to the main, a stop valve, service pipe, and a meter setter", the meter setter sitting in a meter box generally near the edge of the public right-of-way.
The property owner
The service pipe from the meter setter to the premises. Section 13.08.030(A) provides that "The owner shall provide the continuation of the service pipe from the meter setter to the premises, which shall be in his control and maintenance responsibility."

What else is worth knowing

The dividing point is the meter setter in the meter box, which the code places generally near the edge of the public right-of-way. Where premises do not abut a water main, the owner arranges the service pipe route with the department of public works. About 16% of Bainbridge Island'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 most of the island under their own rules, among them North Bainbridge Water Company about 23%, South Bainbridge about 16%, Island Utility about 9% and Meadowmeer about 2%, with smaller systems beside them. About 29% of the island has no published water service area over it, which is not a rival utility and not necessarily unserved. Check the name on your water bill.

Sources

Bainbridge Island Municipal Code section 13.08.030

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.

Bainbridge Island: 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 Bainbridge Island'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.
Bainbridge Island: 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 Bainbridge Island, WA

Look up a specific address

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

Search for an address