Rarely do I have a water line for a GE... Usually PVC or black plastic, sometimes I have copper pipe to bond to but not as a GE, but that's about it.
Two ground rods on about 15 to 25' of #4 bare solid Cu... Don't think we can get stranded bare here but I've used it in Wisconsin where we had to go to the water line and to two rods with an unspliced GEC...
Solid does stay put better once in place.
-Virgil Residential/Commercial Inspector 5 Star Inspections Member IAEI
