Service Lateral Material: Track Both Sides of Lateral?

[JeffSHobbs]

With respect to the lead service line laws, do you track the material of both the consumer side of the lateral and the utility's side of the lateral? If you are tracking both materials, how are you doing it?

Here's a great diagram that shows the distinction. 

Thanks in advance, greatly appreciated!

Jeff

[AlexKabak]

Hi Jeff,

To track both sides, split the lateral at the curbstop or meter (whichever is near the curb). The side closest to the main is the utility's responsibility and the side closest to the home is the homeowner's responsibility.

There are a couple of different ways to split the lateral:

1. Draw 2 separate laterals. One going from tap to the meter/curbstop (utility), and one going from the meter/curbstop to the service connection (homeowner).

2. Or if you have existing laterals that have already been drawn and you have ArcGIS Pro or ArcMap, you can snap a meter/curbstop to it's location on the lateral and use the split tool to split the lateral at that point. Below I have provided links to the Split tool documentation for both ArcGIS Pro and ArcMap.

ArcGIS Pro: https://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/latest/help/editing/split-a-feature.htm

ArcMap: https://desktop.arcgis.com/en/arcmap/10.3/manage-data/editing-existing-features/splitting-lines-manu...

[JeffSHobbs]

Hi Alex,

Thanks for the reply and that makes sense. I guess my question was more around if anybody is actually doing this. Have you heard of anybody actually tracking each part of the service line in the GIS or is it just really one service line?

Thanks!

[RobertThomson · Accepted solution]

I've been pondering that idea for quite some time.  Currently I treat it as one line.  As we have around 5,000 water laterals it would just be too much work and little return.

[JeffSHobbs]

Great feedback, thanks. Being no one else has replied, I'm guessing that's the common view. That was my exact thought as well, with very little return for the investment in time and energy. Thanks!

[Anonymous User]

We track private water services and mains in separate feature classes from public for a couple of reasons.

• We (public agency) are not responsible for the lateral beyond the meter
• We don't track all water laterals once they leave the meter box but we do find it helpful, not to mention labor saving, to note private water services and mains where their location is worth noting.  For example a water service that crosses one property to serve another (see example below)
• having them in a different feature class helps prevent accidental inclusion in inventory reporting.  Sometimes our sole GIS person is asked for summary data but he/she doesn't necessarily understand the nuances of the infrastructure.