Drain Field Repair in Texas, TX

• Finding the office: TCEQ's OARS directory lists authorized agents by county and explains what to check when a county returns more than one listing.
• McLennan County: OARS shows McLennan County as authorized agent for the entire county. Local details are on the McLennan County page.
• Bell County: OARS shows the Bell County Public Health District as authorized agent for the entire county. Its local rules and fees are on the Bell County page.
• For any other Texas county, search OARS. Cornelia Cove LLC does not issue permits or speak for TCEQ or any authorized agent.

• Replacing a failed drainfield, a repair under Rule 285.2
• Rebuilding with a nonstandard design such as a low-pressure dosed drainfield; under 285.33(d), planning materials for any disposal system not described or defined in subsections (b) and (c) of that rule must be developed by a professional engineer or professional sanitarian
• Emergency repairs within 285.35, such as new tank lids or inlet and outlet devices, riser and riser-cap repairs, disinfection device repair or replacement, and fixes to damaged drip tubing or solid lines (conditions in the emergency section below)
• Closing boreholes, cesspools or seepage pits, which 285.3(i) bars from installation or use; those treating or disposing of less than 5,000 gallons of sewage per day close under 285.36, and larger ones as Class V injection wells

• What the ground shows: under 285.30, a site evaluator or professional engineer examines the soil in two borings or two backhoe pits placed at opposite ends of the planned disposal area (the permitting authority may ask for more where soils are highly variable), sorts the soil into classes running from Ia (sandy soils with more than 30% gravel) to IV (silty clay and clay), checks for restrictive horizons and for signs of groundwater within 24 inches of the excavation bottom, and maps slopes, the 100-year floodplain and separation distances. The rule says that information is used to determine the type and size of the OSSF.
• Paperwork tied to the system type: for the OSSFs listed in Table XII of 285.91(12), 285.3(b)(3) requires the owner or the owner's agent, before an authorization to construct is issued, to record an affidavit in the deed records of the county or counties where the OSSF is located and to submit to the permitting authority an affidavit affirming the recording. The recorded affidavit must include the owner's full name; the legal description of the property; that an OSSF requiring continuous maintenance is located on the property; that the OSSF permit is transferred to the new owner upon transfer of the property; and that at any time after the initial two-year service policy, the owner of an aerobic treatment system for a single family residence shall either obtain a maintenance contract within 30 days of the transfer or maintain the system personally. The rule points to an example affidavit in 285.90(2). The same table drives the maintenance contract, testing and reporting duties of 285.7.
• Fees: the permit fee is paid to whichever of the authorized agent or the commission performs the permitting (section 366.059(a)), and section 367.010 adds a $10 fee for each on-site wastewater treatment permit application processed, which local collectors forward to the commission. Under 285.3(d)(5)-(6), a reinspection fee may be assessed and must be paid before the reinspection. Local permit amounts are on the county pages.

• Permit and plan: section 366.051(a) and 30 TAC 285.3(a) make a permit plus an approved plan the precondition for building, altering, repairing, extending or operating an OSSF, with the rule's exceptions collected in 285.3(f).
• Older systems: 285.3(f)(1) excuses an owner from the chapter's permitting, operation and installation requirements when the OSSF is not creating a nuisance and it either was installed before September 1, 1989, or was installed before the effective date of a local order dated before that day, and in both cases has not been altered and is not in need of repair; or the owner received an authorization to construct before the chapter's effective date. TCEQ's permit page tells owners of "grandfathered" systems to confirm with the local permitting authority.
• Applying: 285.3(b)(1) requires an authorization to construct before construction begins, which the authority issues once the owner or agent has filed its application form together with 285.5 planning materials, the 285.30 site evaluation results and the fee. Under 285.3(c) the authority approves or denies within 30 days of receiving the application and explains a denial in writing.
• Building it: under 285.3(d), an authorization to construct is valid for one calendar year; if the installer has not requested a construction inspection within that year it expires, and the owner has to file a new application and fee before installing (nothing new is owed if the owner drops the installation). The installer must alert the authority no fewer than five working days, counted Monday through Friday without holidays, before the system is ready to be inspected, and a system that fails the construction inspection cannot be used until it passes.
• Licenses: section 366.071(a) requires anyone who constructs, installs, alters, extends, services, maintains or repairs an OSSF or any part of one for compensation to hold a TCEQ license or registration, and subsection (c) requires a TCEQ license for preconstruction site evaluations unless the person is a licensed professional engineer. TCEQ's licensing page says an Installer I may install standard systems (septic tanks, absorptive drainfields, unlined ET drainfields, leaching chambers, gravel-less pipe and pumped effluent drainfields) and an Installer II may install all types.
• Maintenance licenses: under 285.7(b)(1), maintenance on an OSSF is done by a TCEQ-licensed maintenance provider or by a registered maintenance technician employed by one; owners who maintain their own systems are covered in the FAQs.

• Clay: NRCS's Texas soils page names Houston Black the state soil, saying it "developed from calcareous clays and marls" laid down in the Cretaceous and is "sticky and moldable when wet," which is why it is "often called 'black gumbo.'" Rule 285.30 places clay and silty clay in Soil Class IV and counts clay subsoils, rock and plugged laminar soils as restrictive horizons.
• Groundwater: the Texas Water Development Board recognizes 9 major and 22 minor aquifers. Its aquifer page says an aquifer's outcrop is its principal recharge zone and that groundwater there is "normally under unconfined, water-table conditions and is most susceptible to contamination."
• Edwards Aquifer: for property on the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone, 285.4(a) points to the additional requirements of 285.40.

McLennan County · Bell County · Waco · Killeen · Temple