As of August 16, 2026, the septic-rule rewrite at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has not been proposed, adopted, or made effective. The project is real and active, but still at the pre-proposal stage: no draft text, no Texas Register publication, no comment period, no commissioner vote. The last change to Texas septic statute took effect September 1, 2023, the most useful change for license holders took effect September 1, 2025, and everything else moving right now is at county level.
Rule project 2024-009-285-CE, the full rewrite of 30 TAC Chapter 285, appears on none of TCEQ’s four rulemaking status pages. We fetched all four on August 16, 2026:
| Stage | What it would mean | Chapter 285 there? |
|---|---|---|
| Pending Proposals | Filed with the Chief Clerk, awaiting a vote to propose | No |
| Proposals | Published for public comment | No |
| Pending Adoptions | Comment closed, awaiting the adoption vote | No. Page reads “There are no pending adoptions at this time” |
| Adoptions | Voted and dated | No. Latest listed took effect 2026-03-19 |
Nothing has been published in the Texas Register either. If you have been told the rules changed in 2026, the person telling you has not checked these pages.
TCEQ’s own project page is out of date, which is why this is confusing. It still says staff “will make recommendations to TCEQ commissioners at an agenda meeting anticipated for September 25, 2025.” That date is nearly eleven months past, and a second TCEQ page estimates completion “by Spring 2026,” which has also passed. TCEQ has not published a revised schedule, and we are not going to invent one; the agency takes rule-project questions at 512-239-0400.
This is a scoping list, not draft rule text. TCEQ publishes a subchapter-by-subchapter list of possible changes. None of it is law, none of it can be commented on yet, and any of it can be dropped. The items most likely to matter to a homeowner or installer:
Stakeholder meetings ran from December 7, 2023 through March 6, 2024, in Beaumont, Corpus Christi, Tyler, Austin and Waco. That input is gathered; the drafting has not surfaced.
HB 4087 is a narrow two-part bill, and it is much smaller than most septic sites describe.
It created a six-month temporary pump-and-haul permit. New Health & Safety Code §366.0513 lets an authorized agent permit a temporary pump-and-haul system on a lot subdivided for residential use that is too small for on-site disposal. The permit runs for not more than six months and may not be renewed. The introduced version allowed a year; the committee cut it to six months, and the House analysis is blunt about why:
“The lack of a time limit on pump and haul operations creates the opportunity for their use as a temporary solution to become a permanent solution, which increases the potential for safety hazards for neighborhoods and environmentally sensitive areas.”
Two details worth getting right: the statute never says “holding tank,” and the trigger is not an acreage number but a lot too small for on-site disposal.
It added two county population brackets to §366.012(a)(2), allowing aerobic drip emitter systems on platted lots under half an acre serving a single-family home on public water, where a licensed engineer or registered sanitarian submits site-specific planning materials. One bracket describes a Gulf coast county adjacent to a county of 3.3 million or more; the other, a county on the Red River along the Oklahoma line with a major interstate through it. Most write-ups mention only the first. Both are in the codified text.
What HB 4087 did not do: it did not create aerobic maintenance contracts, four-month inspections, or 14-day reporting. Those are pre-existing Chapter 285 requirements and have nothing to do with this bill. It did not touch graywater either; that language comes from HB 1902 in 2015. If a page tells you HB 4087 introduced those things, it has not read the bill.
Effective September 1, 2025, an expired TCEQ occupational license can be renewed for up to 180 days, and you may keep working for the first 90. HB 1237 made the change, and it reaches installers, site evaluators, maintenance providers and designated representatives. TCEQ’s renewal page states it:
“Effective September 1, 2025, a person who has applied for renewal of the license or registration, and is expired for 90 days or less, may continue to engage in activities that require a license or registration after the expiration of the license or registration until the license or registration is renewed or denied.”
The tiers, from TCEQ’s fee table:
| Renewal timing | Fee | May you work? |
|---|---|---|
| On or before expiration | $111 | Yes |
| 1 to 90 days late | $166.50 | Yes, once the application is in |
| 91 to 180 days late | $222 | No |
| More than 180 days | Cannot renew | No. New application and re-examination |
One trap that catches people: the 180-day window does not extend the continuing education (CE) deadline. TCEQ warns that failing to complete CE by the expiration date means the renewal is denied “regardless of when it is submitted during the 180-day grace period.” CE is 24 hours for those same four license types, and a license runs three years.
This is a different chapter from the septic rewrite, and unlike the septic rewrite it has actually been proposed. Comments close at 11:59 p.m. on September 15, 2026. TCEQ filed rule project 2025-027-030 with the Secretary of State on July 31, 2026, and it was published in the August 14, 2026 Texas Register. It amends 30 TAC Chapter 30, Occupational Licenses and Registrations, the chapter that carries the license rules for OSSF installers, apprentices, designated representatives, maintenance providers, maintenance technicians and site evaluators.
What it would do for those license types:
Continuing education hours do not change for septic license types, and nothing in this proposal touches Chapter 285, HB 4087 or the septic rewrite project. A hybrid virtual and in-person public hearing is set for September 9, 2026 at 2:00 p.m. at TCEQ headquarters, 12100 Park 35 Circle, Austin, building E, room 201S. Comments should reference rule project number 2025-027-030.
One oddity in the published notice, recorded here because this page tracks the record rather than tidying it: TCEQ gives the earliest possible date of adoption as September 13, 2026, which is two days before its own comment period closes.
HB 5549 died in the House on May 15, 2025. Several septic sites still describe it as pending. It was placed on the General State Calendar and never got a second reading. Had it passed, it would have:
None of that is law. The $10 fee under §367.010 is unchanged, and its statutory source notes stop at 2017.
One footnote for completeness, because this page is about being exact: Chapter 366 was amended in 2025, but only cosmetically. SB 766 corrected leftover references from the agency’s former name to TCEQ, and §366.002 carries the note “Acts 2025, 89th Leg., R.S., Ch. 986 (S.B. 766), Sec. 19, eff. September 1, 2025.” It changes nothing operational. Saying no 2025 legislation touched Chapter 366 is imprecise; saying nothing about how septic systems are regulated changed in 2025 is correct.
The ten-acre exemption is being closed county by county, not by the state. This is the part almost nobody tracks, and the part that decides whether a permit is required.
Under 30 TAC §285.10(c)(3), a county order amendment “shall be effective on the date the amendment is approved by the executive director” of TCEQ. A county vote alone does not do it. That distinction splits the counties below into two groups.
Adopted and in force. Lampasas, Washington, San Saba and Kerr each carry a TCEQ executive-director approval date, which is the date that makes an order effective. Robertson’s date is the effective date set by the order’s own Section 16, and we have not located a separate TCEQ approval for it. That distinction is the whole point of the column and should not be collapsed.
| County | In force from | What changed |
|---|---|---|
| Lampasas | 2025-02-13 | Permit for all systems regardless of acreage; 1-acre minimum with public water, 2 without |
| Washington | 2025-07-17 | New order replacing all priors; permit regardless of acreage; tighter surface-application setbacks |
| San Saba | 2025-08-11 | New order; permit and inspection for any system regardless of tract size |
| Robertson | 2025-09-01 (order Sec. 16) | Permit regardless of lot size; fees to $300 residential, $500 commercial |
| Kerr | 2026-08-07 | New order replacing all priors; permit for every OSSF regardless of acreage (Sec. 9); existing compliant systems grandfathered |
Adopted, approval date not publicly locatable. There is no public TCEQ index of authorized-agent order approvals, so we can show the county’s adoption but not the state’s sign-off:
Wise County belongs in the same trend but arrived earlier: its order has required a permit “regardless of the size of the tract of land” since 2012.
Kerr County’s new on-site sewage facility (OSSF) order is adopted, approved and effective. It requires a permit for every OSSF in the county regardless of acreage, and it took effect on August 7, 2026. This section was re-checked against primary sources on August 23, 2026, and it changed; the state-level status above still carries its own August 16 date.
The sequence, from the documents themselves:
The operative text is Section 9, More Stringent Requirements: “Tracts Greater Than Ten (10) Acres [30 TAC 285.3(f)(2)]: A permit shall be required for all On-Site Sewage Facilities within Kerr County area of jurisdiction regardless of acreage.”
The county’s Environmental Health page now says the same thing in plainer words: “Effective Aug. 7, 2026, the county now requires a permit for ALL new septic systems, regardless of tract size.”
Its statement on existing owners is unchanged and still explicit: “To be absolutely clear, this change is NOT retroactive.” Systems already in place are not swept in, and the county says the permit fee “is only applied for OSSFs that are being altered, repaired, upgraded or are new installations.”
What this page said before, and why: through August 16, 2026 this section reported the order as voted but not established as effective. That was accurate on its date. The county’s page was still headed “Proposed,” no signed order or TCEQ approval was in public view, and a phone call to Environmental Health returned that the county was waiting on TCEQ. All four of those gaps closed when the county posted the approved order. The lesson this page keeps making is unchanged: a county vote is not an effective date, and the executive-director approval is the thing to look for. If you are buying land in Kerr County, the Kerr County permit guide tracks the fees, and the new septic system cost guide covers the system itself.
Four links and about two minutes will tell you whether the state-level status on this page still holds. Trackers go stale, including ours, so here they are:
For a county order, ask the county for the signed order and the TCEQ approval letter. A vote is not an effective date.
State law has long exempted a single-family home on a tract of 10 acres or more from needing a septic permit, provided the system’s effluent stays on the property and meets the setback conditions. It is a state-level exemption that counties are increasingly overriding: Lampasas, Washington, San Saba, Robertson, Gillespie, Gregg, Tarrant, Wise and, since August 7, 2026, Kerr all require a permit regardless of acreage. Our full guide to the ten-acre rule covers the conditions and the county-by-county status.
Generally yes, and the counties changing their rules have been saying so explicitly. Kerr County’s own statement on its adopted order reads “To be absolutely clear, this change is NOT retroactive.” These orders apply to new construction, alteration, extension and repair. What can pull an existing system into the rules is doing work on it, selling with a failing system, or a complaint investigation.
In two specific Texas counties, yes, using an aerobic drip emitter system, because HB 4087 said so in 2023. Health & Safety Code §366.012(a)(2) allows it on a platted lot under half an acre serving a single-family home on public water, where a licensed engineer or registered sanitarian submits site-specific planning materials and the authorized agent approves them. The two brackets describe a Gulf coast county adjacent to a county of 3.3 million or more, and a Red River county on the Oklahoma line with a major interstate. Everywhere else, lot minimums are set by county order, commonly one acre on public water and two on a private well.
There is no single statewide minimum; it is set county by county, and one acre with public water or two acres with a private well is the most common pattern. Wise County, Lampasas and Washington all use versions of it. Check the order for the county you are building in rather than a statewide figure, and remember that usable area matters as much as lot size: several county orders require the area available for the system to be at least twice the design area.
State rules allow a homeowner to install a system on their own single-family residence in some circumstances, but the county is the authority that decides and several require a licensed installer regardless. Because this varies by county and is a common source of failed inspections, confirm it with your authorized agent before buying materials: ask whether the county accepts an owner-installed system and what it requires on the application.
No Texas septic rule or statute changed at state level in 2026; the Chapter 285 rewrite is still pre-proposal as of August 16, 2026. The last statutory changes took effect September 1, 2023 (HB 4087) and September 1, 2025 (HB 1237, license renewal). The changes that took effect in 2026 are county orders, listed above. One TCEQ rulemaking is open for comment as of August 16, 2026, but it amends Chapter 30, the occupational licensing chapter, not Chapter 285, and a proposal is not a rule in force.
This page tracks primary sources only, and labels every item by the stage it has actually reached. Those sources are TCEQ’s four rulemaking status pages, the Texas Register, the codified Health & Safety Code with its session-law source notes, enrolled bill text and committee analyzes from the Texas Legislature, county orders and Commissioners Court minutes, and TCEQ’s own licensing pages. The stage labels matter because the difference between proposed, adopted and effective is where almost all published error about Texas septic rules lives.
Where the record does not establish something, this page says so rather than filling the gap. That currently applies to three things: TCEQ has published no revised schedule for the Chapter 285 proposal; TCEQ maintains no public index of county order approvals, so the Gillespie, Gregg and Tarrant approval dates could not be confirmed; and no draft text of the rewrite exists to read. A fourth item came off this list on August 23, 2026: the Kerr County approval document, which was not publicly visible in August and now is.
Last checked: August 16, 2026 for everything at state level, against TCEQ’s four rulemaking status pages and the current Texas Register issue, Volume 51 Number 33, dated August 14, 2026. We re-check monthly and change that date only when we have actually re-fetched those pages. The Kerr County section carries a later date, August 23, 2026, because it was re-checked on its own against the county’s page and the approved order, and the answer changed. Two dates on one tracker is deliberate: advancing the state-level date without re-fetching the state-level sources would be exactly the error this page exists to avoid.
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