Customer Responsibilities for the connection to HAW collection system

Single Family Homes

Single family homes are connected to Hawaii American Water’s (HAW’s) collection system by a lateral pipe (aka lateral).  The lateral typically extends from the structure to the point of connection to the utility’s red clay pipe at the property line.  The homeowner is responsible for, and “owns”, the section of lateral, which is on the owner’s property including the clean-out, while the utility owns the service line extending beyond the property.  In most cases, the property line can be delineated by locating the point of connection to the utility’s red clay pipe.  This is done by the utility by inserting a camera into the lateral at the sewer clean-out.  The figure below is a schematic representation of the service connection.   

Condminiums

For condominiums:

For condominium owner’s, the responsibilities are similar except that the association would own the lateral on its property.

Exceptions:

In some cases, the property owner’s lateral connects to the utility’s sewer main within an easement held by the utility.  Here the sewer main is not in a public “right of way”, such as a street or roadway, but is on private or government land.  In this example, the property owner is responsible for the lateral up and to the point of connection with the main.

Additional Information

For more information, please see Rule V in the Tariff specific to your community.  These tariffs are accessible from this website.