Millions of Americans live in cities and suburbs and take for granted that their tax dollars fund their public sewer system. These systems transport their wastewater to city sewage treatment plants, where the waste is cleaned from the water, and then released back into the nation’s waterways.
That’s great in the city, but what about folks in the country? Well, there are some private sewage companies as well as subdivisions that provide their own wastewater treatment.
The rest of America has to deal with septic systems, also known as on-site sewage facilities. In the state of Texas, the permitting, licensing, and installation of OSSFs are regulated by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). They originally had direct oversight, but several years ago, transferred that oversight to the counties. Today, when you are building a home and will need an OSSF, you or your builder will contact a licensed installer who will, in turn, reach out to a designer and the Designated Representative (of the TCEQ) for your county. The designer will test the soil to determine which type of system the ground will accommodate design it to the state-mandated rules and the installer will install it to the design. The DR will inspect the system and either “sign off” on it or require the installer to correct any deficiencies.