Water main break on your street: what to do and who to call

A water main break is one of the few plumbing emergencies where the first call should usually not be to a plumber. The main under the street belongs to whoever supplies your water, and so does the repair. What you need to know is how to tell a water main break from a problem on your own line, who to call, and what to do in the house while it is being fixed.

Is it the main, or is it your line?

This is the question that decides who pays, so it is worth a minute before you call anyone.

• Several houses losing water at once, or water flooding up through the road — that is most likely the main, and it is the water supplier’s job.
• Water coming up at the sidewalk or the edge of the road in front of your house only, while everyone else’s water is fine — it could be the main or it could be your own service line. Call the water supplier first and let them check the main before anyone digs.
• A wet patch in your own front yard between the street and the house, while the neighbors are fine — that points at your service line, which is yours.
• No visible water anywhere, but your meter keeps moving with every faucet closed — a leak somewhere on your side, often underground. That is a job for leak detection.
• Low pressure or brown water across the street, no flooding — often scheduled main work or flushing rather than a break.

Who owns which part

A water main break is the water supplier’s to fix, because the main under the street is theirs. The pipe that connects your house to it, the service line, is where towns differ, and in Yonkers and White Plains the owner’s part runs all the way out to the main.

• The main belongs to the water supplier, whether that is a city, a water district or a company.
• In Yonkers, the city says property owners own and are responsible for their water service line from the house to its connection to the City’s water main. That includes the stretch under the sidewalk and the street.
• In White Plains, the city’s water rules say the homeowner owns the entire service line, from the water main to the water meter.
• In other towns, ask the water supplier where your part ends. Do not assume it stops at the curb box.

So a leak can be the owner’s bill even when the water is surfacing out by the street. If it is a water main break, it is not a plumbing bill; if the leak is on a service line you own, it is. When in doubt, ask the water supplier before anyone digs.

Who to call, town by town

These are taken from each city’s own website. Offices and numbers change, so check the link before relying on them.

• Yonkers: the City of Yonkers Water Bureau runs the mains — more than 400 miles of water line — and by its own figures deals with around 60 water main breaks in a typical year. It also does emergency mark-outs around the clock, which matters before anyone excavates.
• White Plains: the city’s DPW Bureau of Water & Wastewater runs a 24-hour emergency hotline on 914-422-1333. That is the number for a water main break in the street.
• Dobbs Ferry: Veolia works on the water mains here, not the village, so a break in the street is theirs.
• Everywhere else we cover, the water owner is listed town by town on our service area page.

What to do inside the house

• If a water main break cuts the supply off completely, turn off anything that heats water — a boiler or water heater running without water coming in can be damaged.
• Do not run hot water when the supply comes back. Run a cold faucet until the water runs clear first. White Plains says it plainly in its own advice: run the hot first and the discolored water goes into your water heater tank, and then you have to run the hot until it clears as well.
• Follow any boil-water notice the water supplier issues, for exactly as long as it says.
• Expect a burst of air and sputtering from the faucets when pressure returns. Open one faucet on the lowest floor and let it run until it settles.

When a water main break becomes a plumbing problem

Sometimes the main is repaired and something in the house is not right afterward: pressure never fully comes back, a valve that was shut during the work now leaks, or the water heater keeps producing rusty water days later. That is when to call a plumber rather than the water department.

And if the failure turns out to be on your own service line, that is excavation — in Yonkers and White Plains it can mean digging out under the sidewalk or the street — the same kind of work as our sewer line job under a front lawn, where the lawn comes up because there is no other honest way to reach the pipe. Find your own water shut-off valve now, so you can isolate the house if it ever comes to that.

KBD Plumbing & Heating works across lower Westchester — Dobbs Ferry, Hastings-on-Hudson, Irvington, Yonkers, White Plains and the rest. Licensed and insured, price agreed before work starts, and the phone is answered any hour including holidays: (914) 233-3000.

More advice from the job