Your side of the Edmond meter
The City of Edmond draws a clear line at the water meter. The public line from the street main to the meter is the city's. The private service line from the meter to your house, and all the plumbing inside, is yours to maintain and repair. On a small lot that private line may be a short run under the front yard. On the larger lots east of I-35, it can cross a long stretch of property, pass under driveways and landscaping, and sit in the same expansive clay that the Oklahoma Geological Survey says covers much of the state.
The city is also working through a service line inventory under the EPA's Lead and Copper Rule Revisions. Notices dated December 31, 2025 went to addresses where the material is listed as unknown, and those addresses will keep getting a notice each year until the material is verified. If we expose your line for a leak, we can tell you what it is made of so you can report it through the city's self-reporting page.
Underground water leak detection
An underground leak can run for months before it shows. The ground over it may never get wet, especially in clay that lets water spread sideways. Here is how we find it:
- Prove the leak. With all water off, we watch the meter's leak indicator.
- Split the system. Closing the house shutoff tells us whether the loss is inside the house or on the service line.
- Trace the line. We map the pipe's route from the meter to the house, which is rarely a straight shot on older lots.
- Listen for it. Acoustic equipment picks up the sound of water escaping under pressure and narrows it to a spot.
- Repair and inspect. We expose the leak, repair or replace the line, and schedule the city's water line inspection when new pipe goes in.
Leaks that hide in summer
Citywide, Edmond pumps roughly three times as much water on a summer day as on a winter one: about 26 million gallons a day at the summer average versus as little as 8 million in winter, per the city's 2018 sustainability report. When a July bill is high, most people blame the sprinklers. Sometimes the sprinkler system really is the leak, through a cracked lateral line, a broken head or a valve that will not close. A service line or slab leak, on the other hand, hides inside that bigger summer number and only stands out in winter, when the bill should drop and does not. Comparing this winter's bill with last winter's is one of the simplest leak checks there is.
Signs of a hidden leak
- A water bill that climbs with no change in habits
- The meter's leak indicator moving with everything off
- A wet, sunken or unusually green spot in the yard
- Stains or soft spots on ceilings and walls
- Low pressure at several fixtures at once
- The sound of running water inside a wall at night
Our main water leak detection and repair page covers inside-the-wall and slab leak methods in more depth. For local utility and permit details, see our Edmond plumbing page.