Sewer Line Repair in Portland

Who owns which part in Portland

In most of Portland the property owner is responsible for the sewer line from the house to the curb, including the stretch under the sidewalk and parking strip. Where the street is City-paved with curbs, the City maintains the branch from the main to the curb, along with the public sewer under the street.

Oregon law counts the house sewer, out to the lateral at the curb, as plumbing, and the city allows only the property owner or a licensed plumbing contractor to work on the sewer line.

Sewer permits in Portland

Work between the house and the property line takes a plumbing permit, and digging under the sidewalk or parking strip out to the curb takes a right-of-way permit. A repair that crosses both needs both, and every sewer repair is permitted and inspected before the pipe is covered.

Oregon’s permit exemption for minor repairs may not include underground plumbing, and a sewer repair is permitted and inspected.

A repair notice from the city

If the City notifies you of a break in a sewer or drain line on your property, you have 30 days to make the repair or ask for more time. After that the City may repair it and place a lien on the property for the cost plus overhead and civil penalties.

Old lines and where they break

The city’s guide says sewer lines laid before the mid-1960s were concrete or tile, with no-hub cast iron or plastic after 1975. Breaks commonly occur at the connection to the branch at the curb line and where cast iron at the house changes to clay or cement pipe about five feet out.

Sewage, a sewer smell or rat holes in the yard or parking strip are signs of a broken line, and the city’s Maintenance group will dye-test rat holes. The sewer line age checker matches your home’s build year to the materials used then.

Portland’s public sewer

Portland Environmental Services runs more than 2,500 miles of sewer and stormwater pipe, and about a third of it is more than 80 years old. The city began building sewers in the 1860s, and many older neighborhoods still have a combined system that carries sewage and stormwater in one pipe.