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Lebanon's New Water Main on John Shaw Road: What It Means for Your Own Water Line

What Lebanon Utilities filed for the John Shaw Road water main, where the utility's pipe ends and yours begins, and what to do before digging nearby.

Lebanon Utilities has asked the state for a permit to build a large new water main along John Shaw Road. If you live or own land near that route, you may be wondering what it means for the water line that serves your own house, barn or shop. This guide covers what was actually filed, where the utility's responsibility ends and yours begins, and what to do before anyone digs on your side of the meter.

We are Wharff Excavating, a family owned excavating contractor based in Lebanon and working Central Indiana since 1964. Water lines are first on our list of services. Everything below about the project comes from the state's public notice, and everything about who owns what comes from the utility's own published terms, so you can check both yourself.

What Lebanon Utilities filed

On September 22, 2026, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) posted a public notice that it had received an application for a construction permit from Lebanon Utilities, public water system 5206003. According to the notice, the project:

• Is identified as Phase 2, Package G and H
• Consists of approximately 33,200 feet of 30 inch ductile iron pipe, which is a little over six miles
• Runs along John Shaw Road and ends at CR 400 E at a booster pump station, together with the necessary appurtenances

The public comment period closed on October 22, 2026. The notice says that if the permit is approved it becomes effective on the date it is issued, and that the issued permit will be available through IDEM's virtual file cabinet. Questions about the project go to the Construction Permits Section of IDEM's Drinking Water Branch.

What the notice does not say

The notice does not give construction dates, a list of affected properties, or any detail about connections for individual homes or businesses. We are not going to guess at those. If you want to know whether the work will reach your frontage, or when, ask Lebanon Utilities directly. They are the ones who will know.

A water main and your water line are different pipes

A public water main carries water for the system. The pipe that brings water into your building is a separate line, and the dividing point between the two matters, because it decides who is responsible for what.

Lebanon Utilities' published terms and conditions for water service define that dividing point as the delivery point: "the point of the physical connection between Utility's and Customer's facilities beyond which point Customer receives and assumes responsibility and liability for the Service rendered." The same terms say:

• The utility determines the location of the delivery point and of the water meter.
• Facilities installed by the utility remain the utility's property unless a contract expressly says otherwise, and the utility operates and maintains them.
• Customers may not disconnect, change connections or otherwise interfere with the utility's meters or other property.
• If a customer asks the utility to move its facilities, the customer agrees to bear the expense of the change.

In plain terms, the main and the meter are the utility's, and the line on your side of the delivery point is yours. That is the same line we draw on our own water lines page: our work is the line outside the building and its connections at each end, while the main in the street and the meter belong to your utility. A problem on their side of the connection is a call to them.

Thinking about a new connection or a change to your service?

Connecting to a public main is not something a property owner arranges alone. Because the utility sets the delivery point and the meter location, and its terms note that a new application or contract for service may be required before it changes its facilities to increase capacity to a customer, the first call for a new service or a bigger one is to Lebanon Utilities. Once the utility has told you where your delivery point will be, the private line from there to your building is the part a contractor builds.

Backflow: one rule worth knowing

Section 11 of the same terms covers backflow and cross connections, which is when water from a private system could flow back into the public supply. If the utility judges that an approved backflow prevention assembly is required under the Indiana rule it cites (327 IAC 8-10), it gives the customer written notice by certified or registered mail. The terms say the customer must then install the approved assembly at their own expense, and that failing to install, test and maintain it is grounds for discontinuing water service until the requirement is met. If you have irrigation, a well that is still plumbed, or a business with process water, it is worth knowing this before you change anything on your side.

If you are digging anywhere near the route

Whether it is a fence, a drain line or a new water service, Indiana law requires notice to 811 before digging, at least two full working days ahead, and every utility on the ticket has to mark its lines or report that it has none before you start. Remember too that 811 members mark the lines they own, which usually stop at the meter or the property line. Private lines past that point, such as a feed to a detached garage or barn, are not marked by 811. Our guide to calling 811 before you dig in Indiana walks through the waiting period, the color code and the two foot tolerance zone around each mark.

Signs your own service line needs attention

A big project on the public side does not change the age or condition of the pipe on yours. Most people find out they have a water line problem in one of three ways:

• Pressure drops off and never comes back.
• A soft, green stripe shows up in the yard in a dry week and will not dry out.
• The line lets go entirely and the water is shut off until somebody digs.

None of those get better on their own, because the failure is in a buried pipe. If what you are seeing is inside the walls, at a fixture, a water heater, a softener or a pressure tank, that is work for a plumber rather than for us, and we will tell you so.

Water line installation in Lebanon: how a job with us starts

Lebanon is our home town, so there is no long drive built into a job here. For water line installation or repair in Lebanon and the rest of Boone County, the process is the same one we use everywhere:

• You reach the office by phone, email or the form on our site and tell us what is happening.
• The office gathers your contact information, the job location, the type of work and any photos you have, and confirms the project is in our service area and our scope.
• We meet you at the property and look at it on site.
• You get a detailed written estimate before anything is scheduled.
• Once you approve it, we schedule the work and coordinate the permits, utility locates, inspections, materials and equipment.
• The crew keeps you informed while the work is going on, the job gets any required final inspection, and then the invoice follows.

We do this work for homeowners, contractors, builders, businesses and municipalities, out of one shop in Lebanon. You can read more about our work around town on our Lebanon page.

Have a question about your line?

If you live near John Shaw Road and are not sure whether something you are planning touches your water service, start with Lebanon Utilities for anything on their side of the meter. For the line on your side, send us the details and a few photos and the office will take it from there.