Drain Field Repair in Florida, FL

• Lake County page: the county health department permits there, and the page covers springs-plan rules for parts of the county and the Green Swamp inspection rule.
• Hernando County page: the county health department permits there, and the page covers two springs restoration plans whose areas take in Hernando land.
• This guide links only the Florida counties with pages on this site; DEP's permitting FAQ shows which office handles every other county. Cornelia Cove LLC does not issue permits and does not speak for DEP or any county health department.

• Drainfield replacement under a repair permit after a site evaluation; in the counties where the county health department permits, DEP's FAQ says a qualified professional must perform it and the county health department can do it for a fee
• Repairs by any method other than adding or replacing drainfield, such as high-pressure water jetting, air injection alongside the drainfield or a chemical compound, for which Rule 62-6.015(3) requires added application details. If the drainfield's absorption surface lies within 6 inches of the wet season high water table, subsection (4) rules those methods out and calls for removing the drainfield and installing a replacement
• Nitrogen-reducing systems where a springs basin management action plan (BMAP) or state law requires one
• Connecting a house to a central sewer when the law requires it instead of a repair

• State fees: the fee rule, 62-6.030 (effective June 8, 2026), prices the pieces of a repair separately: application with existing system and system repair evaluation, $50; permit or permit application amendment for a new system, modification or repair, $55; research/training surcharge on new and repair permits, $5; site evaluation, $115; initial system inspection, $75; each system reinspection, $50. Per DEP's FAQ, the county health department adds up the total, including any county fees, according to the system type and the services the applicant asks for. Under Rule 62-6.003(1)(d), a repair system construction permit issued within 12 months from the date of final installation approval carries no fee.
• Water table: Table V in Rule 62-6.015 sets the separation between the bottom of the drainfield and the wet season water table that a repair must meet, with minimums keyed to when the system was first permitted (the county pages give the figures); under subsection (7), no part of the rule can be read to let a drainfield stay in the wet season water table.
• Size: Rule 62-6.015(10) sets the old drainfield area as the floor for the repair, with the only exception being subsection (7), which applies where the standards of subsection (6) cannot be met.
• Who does the work: under s. 381.0065(4), a person who contracts to construct, modify, alter, repair, service, abandon or maintain any portion of a septic system must be registered under part III of chapter 489, and s. 489.551(1) makes DEP the "department" for that part. Section 489.552 adds that nothing in part III prohibits a person licensed under s. 489.105(3)(m) from engaging in the profession for which he or she is licensed; that paragraph defines the plumbing contractor, whose listed scope lets the contractor install, maintain, repair, alter, extend or, if not prohibited by law, design septic tanks without an additional local regulatory license, certificate or registration. The owner-occupied single-family exemption is in the FAQs; ask DEP which credential fits a given job.

• Timing: Rule 62-6.015(5) commits the Department to every effort toward issuing a repair permit within 2 working days of receiving the application. The permit lasts 90 days from issuance, and one further 90-day extension follows if the system is kept from creating a sanitary nuisance.
• Inspection: Rule 62-6.003(2) calls for an in-person, onsite construction inspection before any manhole cover is sealed or fill goes over the work; the person installing, repairing, modifying, replacing, abandoning or constructing the system must notify the Department or an authorized private provider inspector so it is scheduled and completed. The private provider route under s. 381.0065(8) has its own forms and deadlines; ask DEP or the county health department before using it.
• Contractor categories: s. 489.551 defines a septic tank contractor as one with the experience, knowledge and skill to install, maintain, repair and alter all kinds of septic systems, perform site evaluations for repairs when meeting site-evaluation expertise established by rule, and use the materials involved. A master septic tank contractor's services are unlimited in the septic tank trade; that definition adds closing repairs, designing systems where not prohibited by law, and soil evaluations when meeting site-evaluation expertise established by rule. Section 489.553 sets the eligibility requirements for each, including examinations; read it or ask DEP.

• State soil: NRCS's Florida soils page names Myakka "Florida's State Soil." Its official series description calls Myakka soils very poorly or poorly drained with slow internal drainage, puts the series in peninsular Florida at about 1,400,072 acres, and says the water table "is at depths of less than 18 inches for 1 to 4 months duration in most years and recedes to depths of more than 40 inches during very dry seasons."
• Springs: DEP's springs page says the Legislature identified 30 Outstanding Florida Springs in 2016, that restoration plans for impaired springs (BMAPs) include septic remediation plans requiring enhanced nutrient-reducing systems, and that these come on top of the statutory requirements in Chapter 2023-169, Laws of Florida (HB 1379). It sends questions about a specific property to the permitting authority and links a map of where the requirements apply.

Lake County · Hernando County · Clermont · Leesburg · Brooksville