Skip to main content
BelowGrid

Who owns the water service line in Richland, WA

Which part of the pipe is yours

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 Richland about the water service line.

The documents this answer is built on

Who is responsible for which part

Richland's water department maintains the service line from the main up to and including the point of delivery, normally the meter; the customer installs and maintains the line from there to the building. Section 18.12.040 of the Richland Municipal Code provides that "The service line from the point of delivery to the customer's building shall be installed and maintained by the customer". This is Richland's own statement.

Richland
The connection on the main and the service line up to and including the point of delivery. Section 18.12.030 provides that "the department will install and maintain the connection on the water main in a right-of-way or easement, and the service line from this connection up to and including the point of delivery."
The property owner
The service line from the point of delivery to the building, with a shut-off valve in the building.

What decides which applies

Section 18.08.130 defines the point of delivery as "the point at which the customer's service line meets the downstream leg of the water meter", and provides that "In residential areas where meters are located in basements/homes, point of delivery is at the property line." So where the meter is inside the house, the customer's part begins at the property line. Water meters are the City's property. About 87% of Richland'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. About 11% 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

Richland Municipal Code sections 18.12.030, Installation of service line

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.

Richland: 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 Richland'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.
Richland: official site

Your other pipe: the sewer lateral

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

In Richland the property owner is responsible for the whole building sewer, from the building to the public sewer, including its connection to the public sewer and any part in an easement or the street. Section 17.16.030 of the Richland Municipal Code provides that "The owner of property served by a building sewer is responsible for the building sewer's connection to the public sewer, and for the entire length of the building sewer from the public sewer to the building the line serves."

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 Richland, WA

Look up a specific address

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

Search for an address