On 10/28/2013 11:49 AM, Nate Nagel wrote:
On 10/28/2013 12:05 PM, wrote:

Not true. Check the NEC.

*If* you have a 10' long or longer metal underground water service, it
must be part of the grounding electrode system. However, you *must*
provide supplemental grounding in that case, and that has been the case
for quite a while. However, there are plenty of houses out there where
the ground/neutral bus in the main panel is bonded to the water piping
where it enters the house, and to no other supplemental ground, as that
was accepted practice in the 1970s and earlier. Those would have been
code compliant when built, but would not be code compliant today.

My house has only a metal water service pipe as an earthing electrode.
It was code when installed. As far as the NEC is concerned it is
compliant today. If I replace the service it won't be compliant.