Please run into the attached fact sheet for information about our inspections during the COVID-19 pandemic.


Click here to view  inspection results online.

Click here to find a water quality service provider, hauler, etc.

Hamilton County Public Health approves plans, issues permits and conducts inspections for all household sewage handling systems and small menses onsite sewage handling systems located within our jurisdiction (all of Hamilton County excluding cities of Cincinnati, Norwood, and Springdale). Whether yous have an existing organization, need to supervene upon a declining organisation, program to add on to your domicile, or build a new home or business organisation that will non be connected to sanitary sewer, Health Commune Ecology Health Specialists are here to help.

For information about operating, maintaining or repairing your septic organisation, click here. If you are buying a home and want to make sure the septic system is working properly, click here for info on a Real Estate Transfer.  Contractors looking to be registered a a hauler, installer or service provider in Hamilton County, Ohio should click this link.

Select the selection that best describes your situation:

I am building a home that requires a household sewage treatment system (STS)

Click here to Check the Status of your Application or Permit

If you are constructing a dwelling house or business that will not exist continued to a sanitary/public sewer system, you will demand to install a sewage treatment system (septic system). All new subdivision plans and individual plots unable to admission sanitary sewer lines are reviewed past Wellness District Ecology Health Specialists. Environmental Health Specialists review the soil and topography of the plot and make recommendations on the type of system to be installed. Additionally, staff carry inspections for room additions and work with property owners throughout the process of replacing failing household sewage treatment systems.

Sewage Treatment System technology has made great advances in the terminal several decades and Hamilton Canton Public Health has a nationally recognized inspection program. At that place are many steps that get into the blueprint and installation of a septic organization, and a organization that works for ane property may non work for another.

The following data should help yous through the process of designing and installing a new septic system. Should you have questions, Water Quality staff are available to help.

Requirements for design of a septic system

My current septic system must be replaced..

I am required to connect to a sanitary sewer

In that location are two options for the treatment of household wastewater in Hamilton County – sewers or household sewage treatment systems (septic systems).

Septic systems care for wastewater from your home (dishwasher, showers, toilets, washing machine, sinks, etc.) using soil absorption, aeration and septic tanks. Hamilton Canton Public Health inspects septic systems in Hamilton County to ensure that they are working properly and are not creating a public health nuisance.

The Metropolitan Sewer District (MSD) maintains the canton's sanitary sewer system, which treats all wastewater in Hamilton County.

Property Owner Requirements

Ohio law and Hamilton County Policies and Standards requires homes inside a certain altitude of a sanitary sewer system to connect to it, regardless of whether or not that home has a properly operation septic system. If you are required to connect to a sanitary sewer, you will receive a letter from the Health Commune explaining the steps you should have and the time frame inside which you have to complete them. In most cases, those steps include:

  • Obtain a sewer tap permit from MSD. Contact MSD at (513) 244-1330.
  • Obtain an abandonment let for your current household sewage treatment system. Contact the Health District's Plumbing Partitioning at (513) 946-7854.
  • Have your home/edifice'due south sewer directly connected to the sanitary sewer bachelor to your property.

Property Owner Costs

The Hamilton County Commissioners fund construction of local sewers by charging an "assessment" to the benefited properties. The amount of a construction assessment depends on the sewer's actual construction costs.

A property owner will incur the post-obit construction costs:

  • Local sewer construction cess
  • Plumber'south charges for connecting to the sewer system
  • Filling/closing onsite septic organization
  • Tap-in fee and various permit fees

Financial Help

Fiscal assistance may be available to Hamilton County homeowners who are required to connect to germ-free sewer. Please view Fiscal Assistance Fact Sheet to determine if you lot qualify.

  • Cess Aid – Information technology is the policy of the Hamilton County Board of County Commissioners to encourage public sewers and to assist financing sewer improvements. Special assessments made be levied on properties receiving benefit from public sewer improvement. Total actual costs of the local public sewer improvement in excess of $12,000 per benefited property is funded from Metropolitan Sewer Commune. Also, property owners may, if they choose, pay the assessment (plus finance charges) over a 20-twelvemonth period. Visit www.msdgc.org for more information.
  • Connexion Fee Assistance – The Hamilton County Planning and Development Water and Sewer Grant Plan provides one-time grants upward to $6,500 to income eligible property owners. Simply residents living in Hamilton County, exterior the limits of Cincinnati, are eligible. When connecting to public sewers, the loan or grant does not apply toward cess costs, only to sewer tapping costs.  Homeowner must be approved for the grant prior to construction.  Please telephone call 513-946-8230 for more than information.

I am repairing or altering my electric current sewage treatment system

If your arrangement requires repairs or alterations to go far work properly again, yous may need a permit before you can get-go work. If y'all are uncertain, contact H2o Quality staff at (513) 946-7863 for more information.

The following are examples of when you lot will need an alteration permit for your septic organisation. Other situations may exist.

  • Replacing 20 or more than feet of pipe in your system
  • Replacing whatsoever tank in your organisation
  • Relocating a portion of your system
  • Moving a discharge line

I need the Household Sewage Treatment Organization Installer'south Manual

The following is a compilation of documents that provide specifications, guidelines, and installation standards for various types of Household Sewage Handling Systems (HSTS). This document contains a combination of data that relates to conventional engineering science and advanced technology. Therefore, traditional gravity leaching trenches and "avant-garde" mound installation guidelines appear in the same document, equally well as others.

The intent was to provide a document with a broad scope that is able to meet the challenges this developing industry faces. It is hoped that this document will remove some of the "growing pains" associated with taking part in the evolving manufacture of onsite wastewater treatment.

This manual is the product of a collaboration between the Hamilton County Public Health, the Clermont Canton Full general Health District, and the Brown Canton Full general Health District.

This manual volition exist updated on an annual basis. If y'all have any questions about these materials, please contact the Health District'southward Water Quality Segmentation at (513) 946-7863.

  • HSTS Manual Section ane through Appendix 21
  • HSTS Transmission Appendix 22 (Drawings)
  • HSTS Installer'southward Transmission Appendix 23 (Every bit-builts & Layout Surveys)
  • HSTS Installer'south Manual Appendix 24 (Forms)
  • HSTS Installer's Manual Appendix 25 (References)

Boosted Resource

  • A Homeowner'due south Guide to Septic Systems
  • Additions
  • Application to Construct or Supplant a Household Sewage Treatment System
  • Application for Sewage Handling System or Gray Water Recycling System – Let to Install or Alteration Allow
  • Awarding for STS or GWRS Review for Property Comeback/Modification
  • Fact Canvass: How Owners Tin can Certificate Sewage Handling System Performance, Monitoring & Maintenance in Lieu of a Wellness Commune Inspection
  • Observe a STS Service Provider or Hauler
  • Financial Help for Sewer Connections and Septic Arrangement Replacement
  • Hamilton County Policies and Standards about OAC 3701-29
  • Ohio EPA Semi-Public Sewage Treatment Organisation Inspection Programme
  • Operation and Maintenance Plan Standards for STS and GWRS
  • Request an Inspection
  • Septic Smart Homeowners' Resources from the EPA
  • Sewer Treatment Organisation (STS) Direction Plan
  • Variance Request from OAC 3701-29
  • Water Quality PWS Fee Schedule
  • Water Quality STS Fee Schedule