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Who owns the water service line in Kelso, WA

Which part of the pipe is yours

  • Water service line

    Yours from the meter to your building

    Why, and what to do
  • Sewer lateral

    Yours from your property line to your building — if certain conditions are met

    Why, and what to do
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 Kelso about the water service line.

The documents this answer is built on

Who is responsible for which part

In Kelso the customer is responsible for all piping and fittings from the meter to the premises, and the City is not required to maintain or repair any part of the service connection beyond the meter set assembly. Section 13.04.020 of the Kelso Municipal Code provides that "All piping and fittings from the meter to the premises served shall be the customer" before naming that responsibility. This is Kelso's own statement.

The property owner
All piping and fittings from the meter to the premises served. Section 13.04.045 provides that "In no case shall the city be required to maintain or repair any portion of the service connection beyond the meter set assembly."

What else is worth knowing

The dividing point is the meter. The code defines the service installation as "all piping and fittings from the main to and including the water meter assembly" and section 13.04.210 provides that "The city shall maintain and repair all service meters", but it does not say in terms who maintains the pipe between the main and the meter; ask the City before paying for work there. About 98% of Kelso'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. Check the name on your water bill.

Sources

Kelso Municipal Code section 13.04.020, Definitions (Ord. 3731, 2010)

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.

Kelso: 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 Kelso'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.
Kelso: official site

Your other pipe: the sewer lateral

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

In Kelso the property owner bears the cost of maintaining the side sewer, and when a side sewer is found defective the owner repairs or replaces it up to the right-of-way line while the City repairs or replaces the part from that line to the main. Section 13.08.155(B) of the Kelso Municipal Code provides that "The city shall repair or replace the defective side sewer from the right-of-way line to the city" before naming the sewer main.

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

Same trench, separate authorities, decided separately.

Who pays for the sewer lateral in Kelso, WA

Look up a specific address

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

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