Drain Field Repair in Union County, NC

• Mark the utilities first. Union County's Utilities Locating Agreement says soil and site evaluations, including those for repairs and expansions, and existing-system inspections will not be done until the owner or authorized agent has located the underground lines that could interfere with probing or augering, such as water and irrigation lines, electric, telephone, cable and gas lines. If lines are not clearly marked, delays may follow and a revisit fee may be charged. The form names North Carolina 811 as a no-charge service that locates power lines (except private lines), cable and telephone lines.
• Backhoe: a note on the county's fee page says the owner or applicant must provide a backhoe with a bucket at least 2 feet wide and a trained operator for new-system soil and site evaluations, and that no backhoe is required when an evaluation looks at an existing system for repair or expansion. The septic page's general instructions tell applicants to arrange one for the scheduled evaluation, so confirm what a repair visit needs.
• Old permit files can be requested through the county's Existing Septic and Well Permit Records Request form, one way to see what was approved for the lot before work starts.

• Drain field repairs under a county repair permit (listed on the fee page as a Construction Authorization) issued after the site visit
• Component replacements, which the county's fee page lists as a separate permit
• Repairs to low-pressure pipe (LPP), pretreatment and pump systems, which the county names as examples of systems its state-mandated operation and maintenance program requires to be inspected
• Pump-and-haul service while a repair is built, when the notice of violation requires it under 15A NCAC 18E .1306(c)(3)
• Closing a field found nonrepairable, which Rule .1306(f) bars from further use and sends to abandonment under Rule .1307

• Depth to rock: Rule 18E .0901(a) requires at least 12 inches of naturally occurring soil between the trench's infiltrative surface and any limiting condition. Badin soils, for one, have weathered bedrock 20 to 40 inches down (see the soil notes below).
• Fill: if any part of the trench or bed media sits above the natural soil surface, Rule .0901(b) makes it a fill system that must meet Rule .0909.
• System type: the county's fee page prices construction authorizations separately by system type, from Type IIc to Type VI. Its amounts are not quoted here because the page prints no effective date; ask Environmental Health for the current figure.

• Repair timing: under Rule 18E .1306, the local health department or the state Department issues a written notice of violation, and the system must be repaired within 30 days of the date on that notice unless the notice sets a different time frame for site-specific factors such as the severity of the repair, wastewater backing up into a restaurant or discharging into SA waters, or adverse weather that delays construction. The owner applies for the repair under Section .0200 unless maintenance alone will bring the system into compliance, and the repair must eliminate any public health hazard.
• Covering and use: G.S. 130A-337(a) bars covering a new or repaired system or putting it into use until a local health department inspection finds it was installed or repaired as the permits, rules and statute require. Subsections (a1) and (a2) set alternative inspection routes, through an Authorized On-Site Wastewater Evaluator or licensed engineer, or a certified Private Compliance Inspector, each with its own conditions and filing duties; read them before relying on either. Under subsection (d), no system may be put into use or reuse until an operation permit is issued (or a manufactured home park authorization under subsection (c)).
• Who does the work: G.S. 90A-72(a) requires certification by the North Carolina On-Site Wastewater Contractors and Inspectors Certification Board, at the level required for the system, to construct, install or repair a permitted system. Subsection (b) lists exemptions. One covers a person who constructs, installs or repairs a system described as a single septic tank with a gravity-fed gravel trench on land that person owns, for use only by that person and immediate family members living in the same dwelling; another covers a person employed by a certified contractor or inspector whose work is done under the direct and personal supervision of the certified contractor or inspector in charge. These are exemptions from certification; the permit requirement is in G.S. 130A-336.

• Soil survey: the NRCS soil survey database for Union County (survey area NC179) lists map units named for Badin, Tarrus, Cid, Goldston and Appling soils, a Secrest-Cid complex and frequently flooded Chewacla silt loam.
• Badin: NRCS describes the series as moderately deep and well drained, formed in residuum from fine-grained metasedimentary and metavolcanic rocks of the Carolina Slate Belt, with weathered bedrock at 20 to 40 inches and hard bedrock at 40 inches or more.
• Cid: moderately deep, moderately well drained or somewhat poorly drained, with slow permeability and a perched water table 1.0 to 2.5 feet below the surface in winter and spring.
• Secrest: a series established in Union County in 1991; it is somewhat poorly to moderately well drained, with a perched seasonal high water table less than 20 inches deep from November to March and soft bedrock at 40 to 60 inches.
• Rain and flooding: NOAA's 1991-2020 annual precipitation normal for the Monroe 2 SE station (USC00315771) is 47.79 inches. The county's heavy-rain handout says a system may not work until floodwaters recede and the water table drops below the tank and drainfield trenches, and that vehicles can crush drainfields, tanks and distribution boxes, especially when the soil is saturated.

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