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Who owns the water service line in Port Angeles, 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 Port Angeles about the water service line.

The documents this answer is built on

Who is responsible for which part

In Port Angeles the owner of the premises owns and maintains the service pipe from the meter to the premises; the City owns the service connections in public rights-of-way and maintains the meters. Section 13.32.060(B) of the Port Angeles Municipal Code provides that "The ownership and responsibility for the maintenance of individual service pipe extensions from the meter to the premises served shall be that of the owner of the premises served". This is Port Angeles's own statement.

Port Angeles
Title to the service connections in public rights-of-way, and the meters. Section 13.32.060(A) provides that "The ownership of all water mains and service connections in public rights-of-way shall be solely vested in the City", and section 13.40.030(A) that "The department shall maintain and repair all domestic, commercial and industrial service meters". The code does not say in the same words that the City maintains the service connection.
The property owner
The individual service pipe extension from the meter to the premises served.

What else is worth knowing

The dividing point is the meter. Where a non-standard water service extension runs along the street to a single customer, section 13.32.070 has the department maintain it from the main to the meter. About 99% of Port Angeles'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; Dry Creek Water Association serves about 2% under its own rules. Check the name on your water bill.

Sources

Port Angeles Municipal Code section 13.32.060

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.

Port Angeles: 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 Port Angeles' 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.
Port Angeles: official site

Your other pipe: the sewer lateral

For the sewer lateral, Port Angeles says:

In Port Angeles the property owner maintains the whole building sewer, including its connection to the public sewer. Section 13.62.020 of the Port Angeles Municipal Code provides that "The maintenance of the building sewer from the structure to and including the connection to the public sewer shall be the sole 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 Port Angeles, WA

Look up a specific address

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

Search for an address