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City Orders Property Owners to Report and Maintain Private Water Lines After Conversion

Official:Amending Title 13 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled “Water and Sewer,” by adding a new Chapter 13-700, entitled “Conversion of Private Water, Sewer and Stormwater Lines to Public Ownership,” to establish reporting, maintenance, improvement and repair requirements with respect to water, sewer, and stormwater infrastructure converted to public ownership, all under certain terms and conditions.

Sponsor: Councilmember Henon

Introduced: September 17, 2021

: Committee on Public Property and Public Works

housing infrastructure

No one voted on this bill

This bill was introduced in the 2020–2023 Council term and when that term ran out. The public record shows no committee vote and no floor vote at any stage, so no member of Council ever went on record for or against it.

That is not unusual here. Of the 8,465 bills introduced between 2000 and 2025, 1,624 lapsed without a single recorded vote. Ninety percent of bills that became law carry a roll call. Three percent of lapsed bills do. How this works.

Plain-Language Summary

This bill requires property owners to report and maintain their water, sewer, and stormwater lines when they are converted from private to City ownership.

What This Bill Does

AI-written. Every figure is checked against the bill text.

The bill does the following

Requires the Water Department to issue findings on the condition of water, sewer, and stormwater lines converted to public ownership, within 60 days of conversion.
Requires the Water Department to post its findings and a notice of the conversion on its publicly available website.
Requires the Water Department to mail a copy of the findings and notice to the owners of property abutting the converted line.
Imposes reporting, maintenance, improvement, and repair requirements on property owners with water, sewer, and stormwater lines converted to public ownership.