Verified against county records · sources last read August 7, 2026 · rules change — confirm with the agent before applying
Bucks County is the simple case in a state that is mostly not simple. Pennsylvania’s Act 537 pushes on-lot sewage permitting down to municipalities, but in Bucks the county health department is the local agency for all 54 of them, so there is one office, one rulebook and one fee schedule. A new individual on-site sewage permit is $850 per equivalent dwelling unit, and before that the lot evaluation is $1,300. The county also does something unusual: its own staff dig the test pits and run the percolation test.
$850 per EDU for the permit, plus $1,300 for the lot evaluation that has to come first, and every fee is non-refundable. These lines are from the Bucks County Department of Health Environmental Services Fee Schedule for January through December 2026, form ADM-71.
| Service | Fee |
|---|---|
| Individual lot evaluation (vacant lot or additional flows) | $1,300.00 |
| Act 537 subdivision plan review including lot-by-lot testing | $1,300.00 |
| Primary and replacement sites, per lot | $1,900.00 |
| Limited field evaluation of a previously tested site | $430.00 |
| Repair evaluation request (no additional flows) | $600.00 |
| Sewage inspection / septic inspection abandonment | $310.00 |
| New individual on-site sewage permit, including alterations for increased flow | $850.00 per EDU |
| Alternate or experimental system permit, new and repair | $850.00 per EDU |
| Permit to repair an existing system, or refacing | $650.00 |
| Repair permit to replace components, absorption area excluded | $225.00 |
| Revision to a permit, no additional field work | $300.00 per permit |
| Permit transfer | $200.00 |
| Repair or temporary holding tank permit alongside an on-site permit | $350.00 per permit |
| Planning exemptions, non-building waivers, Component 3 or municipal Act 537 special study | $640.00 |
An EDU is 400 gallons per day, and the schedule is explicit that a single-family residence on an approved lot counts as one EDU regardless of its flow, with fees rising proportionately for each additional unit. Four hundred gallons a day of multi-family, commercial or industrial flow also equals one lot or EDU. Card payments carry a surcharge set out on the schedule. For what the system itself costs to build, see our cost guides.
The Bucks County Department of Health is the Act 537 local agency for every municipality in the county, so your township or borough does not run its own sewage program. That is confirmed both by the department and by the Department of Environmental Protection’s own municipal on-lot service tabulation for the south-east region, which lists the Bucks County Health Department against all 54 municipalities.
Bucks County Department of Health, Bureau of Environmental Health
Neshaminy Manor Center, 1282 Almshouse Road, Doylestown, PA 18901
Phone: (215) 345-3318 · Fax: (215) 345-3833
Hours: 8am to 4:30pm, Monday to Friday
Sewage Program coordinator: Jeanette Andersen, Environmental Supervisor, Upper Bucks Government Services Building, 261 California Rd, Quakertown, PA 18951, (215) 529-7022
The department’s own description of its remit is broad: new and repaired septic systems, spray irrigation, holding tanks, and alternate and experimental systems that qualify under 25 Pa. Code Chapter 73 and the DEP on-lot alternate technology listing.
Bucks County’s rules state that lot size shall not be a determining factor for permitting requirements for on-lot sewage disposal systems in the county.
Pennsylvania’s statewide permit exemption at 25 Pa. Code section 72.22(e) is narrower than people think even where it applies: it covers a residence occupied by the owner or an immediate family member on a contiguous tract of ten acres or more, and only where the owner was the owner of record as of January 10, 1987. It also yields to any local agency or municipality that requires a permit by ordinance, which is precisely what Bucks has done. The county’s rules add that where a tract on which the ten-acre exemption was granted is later subdivided, the exemption ceases immediately. Section 72.31 is worth reading before anyone relies on an exemption anywhere in the state: whoever installs a permit-exempt system indemnifies the Commonwealth, the local agency, the sewage enforcement officer and the municipality against everything that follows.
In Bucks, the Department excavates the test pits and conducts the percolation test itself, which is not how most of Pennsylvania works.
If a permit is denied, the department sends a copy of the denial to DEP within seven days, and you have ten days to request a hearing.
Two limestone valleys in Bucks get their own rules, and in both of them the county’s own staff carry out the site evaluation.
The Durham Carbonate Valley covers roughly 3,380 acres across Springfield and Durham Townships and Riegelsville Borough. The Buckingham Carbonate Valley covers roughly 5,100 acres across Buckingham and Solebury Townships. Inside either, the county rules call for a preliminary office conference before you start, and the department states that soils in these valleys shall be evaluated by department staff. The rule with the sharpest edge is on sinkholes: remediation of any sinkhole is prohibited when a property is being considered for on-lot sewage application, and a 100 foot isolation distance applies from the area of disturbance to any proposed absorption area. If you are buying land in those two valleys, that sentence is the one to read twice before you write a deposit cheque.
Pennsylvania issues no septic installer license, so the credentials that exist here are the county’s hauling vehicle license and the state’s septage hauler registration.
The county licenses sewage waste hauling vehicles, and those licenses expire on September 30 each year and are not transferable. Separately, DEP maintains a residential septage hauler registration, which is the strongest public credential Pennsylvania offers a pumping company; it is a filing rather than a vetting, and we label it that way. See how we verify. Installer competence is enforced at the permit, through the SEO’s inspections against Chapter 73, rather than through any state license.
The county’s penalties are not nominal. A summary offense carries a fine of not less than $500 and costs, up to $5,000 and costs, or up to ninety days in the county jail. Civil penalties run from $300 to $2,500 for each violation, with continuing violations chargeable up to $2,500 a week.
$850 per equivalent dwelling unit for a new individual on-site sewage permit, on the county’s 2026 fee schedule. A single-family house on an approved lot is one EDU regardless of flow. Before the permit, the lot evaluation is $1,300, and a repair permit for an existing system is $650. All fees are non-refundable.
No. The county’s rules state that lot size shall not be a determining factor for permitting requirements in Bucks County. Where the exemption had previously been granted on a tract that is later subdivided, it ceases immediately. Pennsylvania’s statewide exemption also yields to any local agency that requires a permit by ordinance.
The Bucks County Department of Health does. Its rules describe department excavation of two test pits upslope and two downslope, plus a percolation test of at least six holes. That is different from most Pennsylvania counties, where the applicant’s contractor digs and the sewage enforcement officer observes.
Three years. Both the county rules and 25 Pa. Code section 72.27(a) expire a permit where construction has not begun within three years of issuance. A permit transfer is $200 if the property changes hands before the work is done.
The Durham valley covers about 3,380 acres in Springfield and Durham Townships and Riegelsville Borough; the Buckingham valley covers about 5,100 acres in Buckingham and Solebury Townships. If your parcel is in either, ask for the preliminary office conference the rules describe, and know that sinkhole remediation is prohibited while a property is being considered for on-lot sewage.
Sources: Bucks County Department of Health Environmental Services Fee Schedule, January 2026 through December 2026 (form ADM-71, rev. 08/2025); Bucks County Department of Health Rules and Regulations Governing Individual and Community On-Lot Sewage Disposal Systems, approved by the Board of Health January 5, 2023 and the Board of Commissioners March 15, 2023, effective March 25, 2023; Bucks County Sewage Program and Department of Health pages; Pennsylvania DEP, SE Region Municipal Onlot Sewage Service Depiction (updated 3/1/15). All read August 7, 2026. 25 Pa. Code Chapters 71, 72 and 73. Fees change; confirm before applying.
Ground conditions, verified providers and the wider picture: Bucks County septic hub. How permitting works elsewhere in the state: Pennsylvania permit guides.
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