One can attach electric service to the 10 foot buried water
pipe as an earth ground and will still fail inspection. Why?
According to new code, that facility still does not have an
acceptable earth ground. Water company may at any time
replace that 10 foot of copper pipe with plastic. Because
this can happen, code says water pipe is not a reliable earth
ground. The code says that one of those four items (Ufer
ground, 10 foot rod, ground plate, etc) must also be installed
because THAT is the earth ground.

Again, not acceptable to dump electricity into pipes.
Connections to pipes (in some jurisdictions, that also
includes gas pipe) is to remove electricity from those pipes.
Pity the poor plumber standing in water only to discover the
pipe he has just disconnected is conducting electricity into
earth. Just another reason why pipes are connected only to
*remove* electricity - not dump electricity into them for the
purpose of earthing.

NEC requires connection to water pipes - to remove
electricity. That is the change of philosophy that also
requires a separate earth ground installed only to be the
earth ground. Without that dedicated earth ground, a facility
will not pass inspection.

If TPVFDP was correct, then that plumber standing in water
would be electrically shocked - a totally unacceptable
situation. Earth ground must be via something dedicated only
for earthing; immediately adjacent to breaker box and service
entrance.

Now the technicals from code:
250.53(D)(1) Suppliemental Electgrod Required. A metal underground water pipe shall be supplemented by an additional electrode of the type specificed in 250.52(A)(2) through (A)(7). ...

(A)(2) through (7) are Metal frame of building, concrete
encased electrode (Ufer ground), ground ring, 8 foot ground
rod, or buried plate electrode.

IOW if water pipe is used for earthing, then another
dedicated electrode must also be installed. But if that other
dedicated electrode is installed, then water pipe earthing is
not required. In short, the water pipe is not sufficient for
earthing.

Takoma Park Volunteer Fire Department Postmaster wrote:
There is no gentle way to say this. Your wrong. The only reason I'm
making an issue of this is so that no unsuspecting DIYer will fail to
make the required grounding electrode conductor connection to the
underground metal water piping and thus fail inspection.
If available on the premise there are four things that must be used as
grounding electrodes. These are
A concrete encased electrode
The metal frame of the building
A ground ring
An underground metal water pipe ten or more feet long.

In houses with a complete Pex water piping system and no interior
metal piping that could possibly become energized the connection to
the metal supply lateral from the water main is required by the US
NEC. In houses that have been remodeled so that most of the
interior water piping has been replaced with plastic you must make
two connections to the piping.
One to attach a grounding electrode conductor to the underground
metal water piping and the other to bond the remaining interior
metallic piping to the grounded current carrying conductor of the
service. Both connections are required by the US NEC.