Septic records in California

Where onsite wastewater records are kept in each California county, whether you can search them yourself, and what we hold.

Septic companies in California

306 septic and onsite wastewater businesses on record across 28 California counties: pumping, installation, system design, soil evaluation, inspection and repair. Listing is not an endorsement and we take no fee from any of them.

Septic installation and permitting in California

The sequence is broadly the same across the state, and every step generates a record:

1. Site and soil evaluation. A designer or licensed evaluator digs test pits or runs a percolation test, logs the soil profile, the depth to seasonal water table and any restrictive layer, and the slope. This determines whether the lot can take a conventional system at all.
2. Design. Daily design flow comes from bedroom count under state code. That sets tank capacity, and the soil application rate sets drainfield area. The designer picks the dispersal method and lays out setbacks to wells, property lines, surface water and the reserve area.
3. Permit application. Submitted to the county or district health authority with the design and soil work. This is the document most often held in the county file.
4. Installation and open inspection. The installer builds the system and it is inspected while still open, before backfill.
5. As-built and approval. The final drawing showing what was actually built goes into the record. That drawing is what a future owner, pumper or inspector needs.

Repairs and replacements

A failing system follows the same path, but starts from the recorded as-built: the existing tank, field footprint and reserve area constrain what can be built. Which is why pulling the original record is the cheapest first step in any repair.

Buying or selling

Lenders and, in many counties, point-of-transfer rules require an inspection. Inspectors work from the recorded as-built; without it they are probing blind and the inspection costs more and proves less.

How California counties publish records

Counties