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Who owns the water service line in Spokane, WA

Which part of the pipe is yours

  • Water service line

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

    Why, and what to do
  • Sewer lateral

    Yours all the way to the main under the road

    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 Spokane about the water service line.

The documents this answer is built on

Who is responsible for which part

In Spokane the property owner installs and maintains the water service pipe from the property line to the building; the City installs the part from its main to the property line. Section 13.04.0806 of the Spokane Municipal Code provides that "The Water and Hydroelectric Services Department shall install the portion of the service line from the City main to the property line." The code does not say in the same words who repairs that part afterwards. This is Spokane's own statement.

The property owner
The service pipe and connections on the private premises. Section 13.04.1002 provides that "The service pipe connections and other apparatus within any private premises must be kept in good repair and protected from freezing at the expense of the owner or lessee, who will be responsible for all damages resulting from leaks and breaks."

What decides which applies

The dividing point is the property line. Where there is an obstruction in the right-of-way the City lays the service pipe and puts the curb stop within five feet of the street side of the obstruction, and the owner installs and maintains the pipe from there to the building, so the owner's part can begin before the property line. Section 13.04.140 provides that the City "assumes no responsibility whatsoever for any private water pipes, mains, devices, fixtures or appurtenances not located upon public property or the public right-of-way." About 99% of Spokane'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

Spokane Municipal Code section 13.04.0806, Service Pipes

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.

Spokane: 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 Spokane'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.
Spokane: official site

Your other pipe: the sewer lateral

For the sewer lateral, Spokane says:

In Spokane no public authority maintains the side sewer, which runs from near the building to the public sewer, including the part in the right-of-way. Section 13.03.0187 of the Spokane Municipal Code defines a side sewer as "a sewer, not directly controlled or maintained by a public authority, which begins two feet outside the outer face of a structure wall or foundation, conveying wastewater from the building drain to the outside annular surface of a public sewer or private sewer, including in the right-of-way".

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

Same trench, separate authorities, decided separately.

Who pays for the sewer lateral in Spokane, WA

Look up a specific address

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

Search for an address