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

The documents this answer is built on

Who is responsible for which part

In Port Townsend the property owner owns and maintains the water service pipe from the meter to the building. Section 13.13.080(B) of the Port Townsend 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". The code does not say in terms who maintains the pipe between the main and the meter. This is Port Townsend's own statement.

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 water meter. Section 13.13.080(A) gives the City ownership of the water mains and service connections in streets, rights of way and easements "to the property owner's side of the water meter", and section 13.16.030 has the City maintain and repair the meters, but no section says who maintains the service connection between the main and the meter, so ask the City's public works department before paying for work there. About 99% of Port Townsend'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, which also reaches beyond the city limits. Check the name on your water bill.

Sources

Port Townsend Municipal Code section 13.13.080

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 Townsend: 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 Townsend'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.
Port Townsend: official site

Your other pipe: the sewer lateral

For the sewer lateral, Port Townsend says:

In Port Townsend the property owner owns and maintains the sewer service pipe from the main to the premises. Section 13.22.070(B) of the Port Townsend Municipal Code provides that "The ownership and responsibility for the maintenance of individual service pipe extensions from the main to the premises served shall be that of the owner of the premises served".

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 Townsend, WA

Look up a specific address

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

Search for an address