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Who owns the water service line in College Place, 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 College Place about the water service line.

The documents this answer is built on

Who is responsible for which part

In College Place the City installs and maintains the service pipe from the main to and including the water meter; problems in the piping between the meter and the building are the customer's. Section 13.04.180 of the College Place Municipal Code provides that "Any problems which may arise in the piping and appurtenances between the meter and building is the responsibility of the customer." This is College Place's own statement.

College Place
The service pipe and connections from the main to and including the water meter. Section 13.04.070 provides that they "will be installed and maintained by the city's water department and kept within its exclusive control, except on service renewal."
The property owner
The piping and appurtenances between the meter and the building. Water accounts are kept in the name of the owner of the premises (section 13.04.200).

What else is worth knowing

The dividing point is the water meter. Section 13.04.070 makes an exception "on service renewal" that it does not explain, so ask the City's public works department before paying for a service renewal. About 77% of College Place'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. Consolidated Irrigation District 14 (about 5%), Walla Walla University (about 3%) and Green Tank Irrigation District 11 (about 3%) have their own service areas inside the city, and about 12% of the city 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

College Place Municipal Code section 13.04.180

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.

College Place: 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 College Place'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.
College Place: official site

Your other pipe: the sewer lateral

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

In College Place the property owner bears the cleaning, repair and maintenance of the side sewer from the building drain to and including its connection with the public sewer. Section 13.08.255 of the College Place Municipal Code provides that "All expense and liability for loss or damage for cleaning, repairing and maintenance of a side sewer or a private sewer from the building drain to and including connection with the public sewer shall be the responsibility of the property owner."

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 College Place, WA

Look up a specific address

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

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