Plumbers in Phoenix, AZ

The City's water utility draws nearly all of its supply from rivers. The City says 58% comes from the Salt and Verde rivers through the Salt River Project canals and 40% from the Colorado River through the Central Arizona Project canal, with about 2% from City wells. Five treatment plants handle that water: 24th Street, Deer Valley and Val Vista treat Salt River Project water, while Union Hills and Lake Pleasant treat Colorado River water.

Which river reaches your tap depends on where you live. The City says more than 400,000 North Phoenix residents are served almost entirely by Colorado River water, and it publishes a map of the two supply areas. Its 2025 water quality report gives one hardness range for the whole system, 10 to 17.6 grains per gallon, rather than a figure for each plant. If your water service is billed on the City Services Bill, those figures are the ones that apply to your home.

Census estimates put the median home in the city at 1986. About 57% of the roughly 679,000 homes and apartments were built before 1990, with the 1970s and 1980s the two busiest decades, and only about 15% went up in 2010 or later. In a house that age, original piping often sits alongside sections replaced over the years, so a leak or a pressure problem calls for a look at the whole run, not just the wet spot.

Age shows up at the street too. The City stopped installing all-lead service lines in 1938 and galvanized service lines in 1983, and it has published an inventory of service line materials. It says it has not found a lead line since its field investigations began in 2021. If the City identifies a service line as galvanized, it contacts the customer with next steps, and it covers the entire cost of the replacement it schedules, from the meter box to the house. Check the inventory before paying for that work.

Some common jobs need no City permit. Under the City of Phoenix's 2024 building code, a licensed contractor can replace a water heater in kind in a one- or two-family home without one, and replacing a toilet, valve or fixture in the same spot with one that meets the code's water conservation rules is exempt. Moving or adding sinks, toilets and tubs does need a permit, as does work that modifies a gas line or replaces defective concealed pipe. Ask our team, licensed under ROC 331536, whether a permit applies before work starts.

Two other City rules decide who handles what. The water meter separates the City's pipes from yours, and the City lists 40 to 100 psi as acceptable pressure but does not regulate it past the meter. On the sewer side, owners maintain the line from the house to the City main in the street or alley, and the City repairs only broken lines in the public right of way. Knowing where your side begins saves a call to the wrong party.