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Who owns the water service line in Bellingham, 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 Bellingham about the water service line.

The documents this answer is built on

Who is responsible for which part

Bellingham owns and maintains the water service from the main to the meter box, including everything in the box. Section 15.08.060(E) of the Bellingham Municipal Code provides that "Water services shall be owned and maintained by the city from the main to the meter box, including all appurtenances therein." This is Bellingham's own statement.

Bellingham
The water service from the main to the meter box: the connection and corporation stop at the main, the pipe to the meter, the meter box, setter and meter.
The property owner
The pipe beyond the meter box. The code ends the City's ownership and maintenance at the meter box; it does not say in words who maintains the pipe beyond it.

What else is worth knowing

The dividing point is the meter box: the City's part includes all the appurtenances in it. Meters damaged by owners or occupants are repaired or replaced under the director's direction at the owner's or occupant's cost. The City's water service area, as the Washington State Department of Health maps it, covers about 97% of Bellingham's land, and this answer applies inside that area. Check the name on your water bill.

Sources

Bellingham Municipal Code section 15.08.060

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.

Bellingham: 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 Bellingham'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.
Bellingham: official site

Your other pipe: the sewer lateral

For the sewer lateral, Bellingham gives the opposite answer to the one above:

In Bellingham the property owner maintains the whole sewer service connection, including the part in the City right-of-way or utility easement, up to its connection with the City main. Section 15.12.060(E) of the Bellingham Municipal Code provides that "The property owner is responsible for the maintenance of the entire service connection, including that portion within the city right-of-way or 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 Bellingham, WA

Look up a specific address

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

Search for an address