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Who owns the water service line in Yakima, 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 Yakima about the water service line.

The documents this answer is built on

Who is responsible for which part

Yakima's water division owns and maintains the service line from the main through the meter set; the pipe beyond the meter is the owner's. Section 7.68.035 of the Yakima Municipal Code provides that "The water/irrigation division shall be responsible for the operation and maintenance of the service line from the water main through the meter set to the outside of the water meter set." This is Yakima's own statement.

Yakima
The service line from the water main through the meter set to the outside of the meter set. Section 7.68.095 vests in the City the ownership of the service pipes and meters the division maintains.
The property owner
The service pipe from the meter to the building, with the shut-off valve on the pipe leading from the meter into the property.

What else is worth knowing

The dividing point is the outside of the meter set. Section 7.68.090 makes owners of services responsible for all leaks, and damage from leaks, on privately owned services and mains leading from the City's mains to the premises. About 63% of Yakima's land is inside the City's water service area as the Washington State Department of Health maps it, less the part Nob Hill Water Association also serves, and this answer applies only there. Nob Hill Water Association serves much of the rest under its own rules (its area covers about 42% of the city and overlaps the City's mapped area). Check the name on your water bill.

Sources

Yakima Municipal Code section 7.68.035

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.

Yakima: 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 Yakima'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.
Yakima: official site

Your other pipe: the sewer lateral

The sewer lateral leaving your property is a separate pipe, run by a separate authority, and who is responsible for it is decided separately. In many places the two answers are opposites.

Sewer lateral requirements in Yakima, WA

Look up a specific address

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

Search for an address