Drain Field Repair in Johnston County, NC

• Applying: the application form asks for a completed application, a site plan, a zoning document from the appropriate zoning district and the fee, for each individual lot. The packet can be delivered in person or sent by email, U.S. Mail, FedEx, UPS or another mail service; the office then contacts the applicant about payment and sends a list of deficiencies if anything is missing. An applicant who is not the owner must include the owner's consent form. The form calls itself only an application for service: no installation or construction may begin until a permit is issued, and site work done before then is at the applicant's own risk.
• Records: the county's permit search finds septic and well permits by address, street name or permit number; copies it can't produce are requested by email.
• Contact: the septic page says that in an emergency the applicant can reach the assigned Environmental Health Specialist, who is in the office from 8:00 to 9:30 a.m. each weekday.

• Drain field repairs under the county's no-charge repair permit, after staff assess the failure
• Upgrading or replacing an existing system, the $250 line on the July 1, 2026 schedule
• Repairs to pump systems found during the health department's compliance inspections, held at the interval Rule 18E .1301 Table XXXII sets for that system type
• Repairs designed from a licensed soil scientist's evaluation under G.S. 130A-335(a1) and (a2)
• Pump-and-haul while a repair is under way, when a notice of violation orders it
• Abandoning a field and tanks that cannot be repaired, as Rules 18E .1306(f) and .1307 require

• Separation from wet soil: under Rule 18E .0901(a), a trench needs a foot of naturally occurring soil beneath it before any limiting condition, and 18 inches above any soil wetness condition when Group I (sandy) soil makes up more than six inches of that separation. Rule .0504 lists seasonal high and perched water tables among the causes of a soil wetness condition, which the evaluator determines from field indicators in the soil.
• Interim hauling: when it is necessary to protect public health, Rule .1306(c)(3) has the health department or state Department require the owner to pump and haul sewage to an approved system for the time the repair takes, and the notice of violation must say so.
• Pumps: the schedule lists a $50 pump fee, and a system with a pump comes under the health department compliance inspections in Rule 18E .1301 Table XXXII, at the interval the table sets for that system type (see the permit notes).

• Older systems: Rule 18E .0102(a) keeps the 18E rules from applying to a system whose permit or equivalent approval was issued before January 1, 2024 unless design daily flow or wastewater strength increases (strength counts as increased only when the facility is or becomes a commercial facility and its wastewater meets the high-strength definition). A system that is malfunctioning under Rule .1303(a)(2) must follow 18E, Rule .0206 (existing system approvals) still applies to systems whose operation permit or equivalent predates January 1, 2024, and Rule .0102(f) applies the Section .1300 operation and maintenance rules to every system. When a system installed on or after July 1, 1977 is repaired, expanded or modified without an increase in wastewater strength, Rule .0102(g) lets existing components stay as they are unless they are crushed, broken, damaged or otherwise unusable or ineffective so that they will not function as designed; every component must still meet the setbacks. For a system installed before July 1, 1977, Rule .0102(h) applies the same allowance except that setbacks to drinking water wells may not be reduced and setbacks to surface waters may not be reduced by more than 50 percent.
• Best professional judgement: Rule 18E .1306(c)(2) lets the owner ask, on a form provided by the state (posted on the On-Site Water Protection Branch's 18E resources page), that the authorized agent, AOWE or engineer use best professional judgement to develop a repair that should let the system function in compliance with Rule .1303(a)(1). The agent, AOWE or engineer documents on the form which rule provisions are being altered. The owner is liable for any damage caused by a system repaired this way and must agree in writing to all terms and conditions set by whoever developed the repair, including any operation and maintenance requirements, and that agreement is attached to the Construction Authorization, operation permit, Notice of Intent or authorization to operate. The method may not be used when well setbacks would fall below Rule .0601, when surface-water setbacks would be cut by more than 50 percent, or when there is no reasonable expectation the repaired system will eliminate public health hazards. Rules .1306(g) and (h) separately allow best professional judgement for malfunctioning systems installed before July 1, 1977, and for a pre-1977 disposal method that has been in continual use as the facility's sole source of wastewater disposal.
• Private soil evaluations: G.S. 130A-335(a1) lets a licensed soil scientist evaluate soil conditions and site features on a site not served by an approved wastewater system where a repair is necessary, and lets a licensed geologist evaluate the repair area for geologic and hydrogeologic conditions. Under (a2), those evaluations are used in developing the repair's design and must be approved by the permitting authorities, provided the evaluation stays within the scope of the license and the evaluator carries errors and omissions liability insurance from an insurer licensed under Chapter 58 in an amount commensurate with the risk. Johnston's schedule lists a repair under G.S. 130A-335(a2) at no charge.
• Pump inspections: Environmental Health says the state requires it to inspect every system that uses an effluent pump every five years, mailing a letter first and a report afterward. The county page cites “18E .1365,” but current 18E has no such rule; Section .1300 ends at Rule .1307. The schedule is Table XXXII of Rule .1301, which covers systems installed or repaired after July 1, 1992, plus all Type V and VI systems, and sets the interval by system type: it lists five-year entries for a system with a single pump or siphon (Type IIIb), with the owner or a certified operator as the management entity, but a three-year health department inspection for LPP distribution (Type IVa) and for a system with more than one pump or siphon (Type IVb), each managed by a private certified operator or a public management entity with a certified operator. The county's five-year wording therefore matches only some rows of the table; owners can confirm which row covers their system with Environmental Health. For Type IIIb and IIIh systems only, Rule .1305(d) lets a health department give the owner the option of having a private management entity, who is not the owner, perform the on-site compliance inspection under Table XXXII instead of the department; that entity must give the owner and the department a written compliance inspection report every five years documenting that the system complies with 18E and with the performance standards and conditions in the operation permit or authorization to operate.

• Soil survey: NRCS Soil Data Access records for survey area NC101 (Johnston County) include map units named for Rains, Lynchburg, Goldsboro and Norfolk soils, among others, and labels its Bibb, Chewacla and Wehadkee units frequently flooded.
• Rains: poorly drained soils of middle and upper Coastal Plain flats, depressions and Carolina bays, with the seasonal high water table 0 to 12 inches below the surface from December to April.
• Lynchburg: somewhat poorly drained, with the seasonal high water table 6 to 18 inches deep from November to April.
• Goldsboro: moderately well drained, with the seasonal high water table 18 to 30 inches deep from December to April and no flooding or ponding.
• Norfolk: very deep and well drained, with the seasonal high water table 40 to 72 inches down from January to March.
• Wehadkee: a series established in Johnston County in 1911, made up of very deep, poorly and very poorly drained flood-plain soils; NRCS notes that most areas are frequently flooded.
• Rain: the Smithfield station (USC00317994) has a 1991-2020 annual precipitation normal of 49.37 inches, per NOAA.

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