The United States
Know the septic rules for your property before you buy the lot
In 36 states your county issues the septic permit. In 11, the state does. In three, your town does. We looked up all 50. Our survey of all 51 state permitting authorities · checked 2026-09-09
Type the ZIP. We will show you who sets the septic rules there. No contractors. Only facts.
One field takes you straight to the page that covers it. No questions, no email.
Or tell us what you need help with
What guessing costs
Four ways people lose money on a septic system. Each one starts with a rule nobody looked up.
The wrong permit
You file for a new install where the rule calls it a repair. Wrong form, wrong fee, and the review starts over.
A lot that will never pass
You buy the land before anyone tests the soil. The ground decides whether a septic system fits, and some ground says no.
A closing that slips
The permit record for the system is public, but it takes days to pull. Ask for it in closing week and you will sign without it.
A repair that becomes a replacement
A tank goes years past a pump-out and the drainfield takes the damage. Pumping is a routine bill. Replacing a drainfield is not.
What you walk away with
Not a national average. The four numbers and the one phone number that decide what happens on your property. They come from the office that issues your permit.
The fee you will pay, not an average
The current fee schedule where the property is. By permit type, with the date it was adopted.
The rule, and where it is written
The code section, quoted, on a government host you can open yourself.
What your ground can take
The USDA absorption-field rating for your part of the county. It tells you what size of system the ground can take.
Who to call, and what to ask
The office, the number, and the question to ask.
Why this exists
Septic rules are written for inspectors. They are not written for the person whose yard it is. Search for a straight answer and you get a contractor selling the work. Or a page that turns every county in the country into one average.
So we went and got the records. Every figure here is one fact. It carries a source URL, a source name, and the day somebody last opened it. When a figure has no source, the page does not exist.
- We are not a contractor and we do not do the work.
- We are not a directory and nobody pays to be listed.
- We publish nothing we cannot source.
50
states with a sourced rules page
52
counties with pages of their own
2,310
fact records on the site
90 days
the age at which a figure fails the build
How it works
Three steps to get the relevant answers for your situation.
1
Tell us the ZIP
That is the whole first step. The ZIP tells us which county the property sits in, and we take you to the page for it. No name, no email, no street address.
2
Answer four questions
Four taps narrow the answer to your situation. We ask what you are dealing with, who you are, how soon, and the ZIP.
3
Get your answers
A short answer for the county the ZIP sits in, built from the records we hold. Plus the guide that covers it in depth.
Start with what you are dealing with
- A failing system
- Buying a home
- Building on raw land
- Replacing a system
- A permit or inspection
- Routine maintenance
Where we publish today
A county earns a page when we hold facts unique to it. Everywhere else the state page is the built answer. Saying so is more use than pretending we cover 3,108 counties.
Why a national number is useless to you
Search for what a septic system costs and you get a national average. The number is real and it is useless, because nobody permits a septic system nationally. The state writes the code. In 36 states the county issues the permit, sets the fee and sends the inspector. In 11 the state does all three. In Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island there is no county government to do any of it, so the town board of health does.
So the number you need is a local number. An average across 3,108 counties cannot tell you whether your job counts as a repair or a new install. That is what sets the fee. Finding the real figure should take a minute. It takes an afternoon. Whoever sets the fee publishes the schedule as a PDF inside a page inside a portal.
That is why the pages here are built from the records up, not written and then sourced. A figure older than 90 days fails the build. A figure with no government source never gets in. Where we hold nothing for a county there is no county page, and the state page says so.
Start with the ZIP. That is enough to show you who sets the rules where the property is. It also opens that county’s records if we hold them.
How to check us
We source every figure so that you do not have to trust us. Each record on this page links to the document it came from. Each one shows the day we last opened it.
Open the source
Every figure links to the document it came from. The document sits on a government host.
Check the date
Every figure carries the day somebody here last opened it. Past 90 days it fails our build. The page stays down until we check the figure again.
Tell us it is wrong
See a figure that does not match its source? The document wins. Tell us and we recheck it.
Find out who sets the rules where you are
One field. No email, no name, no street address. The ZIP is all we need to know whose rules apply.
Verify before you act. Septic rules are set locally and they change. Check anything here before you spend money on it. Call the office that issues permits where the property is.