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Who pays for the sewer lateral in Olympia, WA

Which part of the pipe is yours

  • Sewer lateral

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

    Why, and what to do
  • Water service line

    Yours from your property line to your building

    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

If a repair needs a permit or an inspection

  • Before work on the pipe · Permit

    Who issues it:
    City of Olympia Community Planning and Development Department - a sewer permit
    What it covers:
    making any opening in a sewer or drain, public or private, and connecting a private sewer or drain to a public sewer or drain

    Olympia Municipal Code section 13.08.030 provides that "A person may not make any opening in any sewer or drain, public or private, or connect a private sewer or drain to any public sewer or drain without complying with all of the provisions of this article relating thereto and obtaining and having a permit to do so from the Community Planning and Development Department."

The repair rule in full, with its sources

Buying or selling?

No rule on file here is specific to selling or buying; that does not mean none exists.

Who to call first about the sewer lateral

BelowGrid has no first-call guidance on file from Olympia about the sewer lateral.

Olympia: official site(opens in a new tab)The documents this answer is built on

Who is responsible for which part

In Olympia the City owns a gravity side sewer from the main to the right-of-way line where there is a cleanout at that point, and the owner owns the rest; without that cleanout the owner owns the side sewer all the way to the main. Section 13.08.040(B) of the Olympia Municipal Code provides that "City ownership of a gravity side sewer is from the sewer main to the right-of-way line or sewer easement boundary, if a cleanout exists at this point."

Olympia
Title to the side sewer from the main to the right-of-way line or sewer easement boundary where a cleanout exists there, and in every case the connection between the side sewer and the main, which section 13.08.040(B) says "is owned and maintained by the City."
The property owner
The side sewer from the building to the cleanout at the right-of-way line or sewer easement boundary, and the cleanout itself, which the owner must install and keep accessible to the City.

What decides which applies

The line depends on the cleanout. Section 13.08.040(B) provides that "If no cleanout exists at the right-of-way line or sewer easement boundary, the owner owns the side sewer from the premises to the sewer main, until the owner installs a cleanout at the right-of-way line or sewer easement boundary." Whoever owns the pipe, section 13.08.040(C) makes the owner remove blockages anywhere between the building and the City main, such as roots, debris or grease, if the cause originated from the private premises. Opening a sewer or connecting to the public sewer needs a City permit.

Sources

Olympia Municipal Code section 13.08.040

Checked

What the rules say

Most relevant if you are repairing or replacing the pipe

  • Before work on the pipePermit
    Who issues it:
    City of Olympia Community Planning and Development Department - a sewer permit
    What it covers:
    making any opening in a sewer or drain, public or private, and connecting a private sewer or drain to a public sewer or drain

    Olympia Municipal Code section 13.08.030 provides that "A person may not make any opening in any sewer or drain, public or private, or connect a private sewer or drain to any public sewer or drain without complying with all of the provisions of this article relating thereto and obtaining and having a permit to do so from the Community Planning and Development Department."

    What to do: Before opening a side sewer or connecting to the City sewer, get a permit from the City of Olympia Community Planning and Development Department, and use a licensed, bonded contractor for any work in the street.

    Why this matters

    The owner owns the side sewer to the cleanout at the right-of-way line, or to the main where there is no such cleanout, and must clear blockages caused from the premises, so opening the side sewer for a repair is work this permit covers. Work in a street or public place must be done by a licensed contractor who has posted a bond.

    Current wording dates from · Checked

    Olympia Municipal Code section 13.08.030

    Also quoted:

What this page cannot tell you

  • No assistance or grant programme has been reviewed for this jurisdiction yet.
  • No sewer service territory has been mapped for this area, so BelowGrid cannot say who serves an individual address.

Who governs and serves this area

Jurisdiction
Olympia (municipality)
Sewer service
No map of sewer providers is held here. BelowGrid cannot say which sewer provider serves an individual address.

How this compares to neighbouring cities

Both of the nearest cities draw the line somewhere else. Each authority publishes only its own rule.

  • Olympia(this page)
    the property line (conditions apply)
  • DuPontabout 12 mi
    the main
  • Sheltonabout 16 mi
    the main

Distances are approximate, in a straight line between the places’ centres.

Your other pipe: the water service line

The drinking water line coming into your property is a separate pipe, run by a separate authority, and who is responsible for it is decided separately. Both pipes divide in the same place here — the property line.

Who owns the water service line in Olympia

Nearby cities and further reading

Look up a specific address

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

Search for an address