Burleson County
septic services.

Plenty of rural Texans assume they can legally build their own septic system. In Burleson County, the Commissioners Court closed that door outright: construction, installation, alteration, and extension of any on-site system must be performed by a licensed installer — homeowners “may not construct, install, extend or alter an on-site sewage facility of any type.” The county didn’t arrive there abstractly. Its order justification, filed with TCEQ in 2023, is unusually candid: soil types and groundwater levels swing widely across the county, some slopes are simply unsuitable, and Burleson “has encountered OSSF failures in areas of the County where lot sizes are below one acre.” The response was written into law — permits required regardless of acreage, and new subdivision lots set at a 1-acre minimum with public water or 2 acres on individual wells, both stricter than state baselines. The county says plainly it will enforce the order aggressively, civilly and criminally.

The terrain behind those rules: Post Oak Belt country, undulating to hilly, except for the Brazos River’s broad alluvial valley blanketing nearly a quarter of the county’s eastern edge — flat bottomland where groundwater rides high seasonally. Drinking water comes largely from the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer, hard but heavily relied on, one more reason failures weren’t tolerable. Around Somerville Lake’s 11,000 acres, weekend places and RV setups add pressure; the county now requires RV-park systems designed for 80 gallons per space per day, bluntly noting that recent parks “are being used as permanent residential units.”

Day-to-day process is small-county practical: a 911 address verification letter before you apply, no emailed applications, an Authorization to Construct valid for one year, and a recorded affidavit plus a maintenance contract when the system type calls for it. Volume is modest — 222 systems authorized in 2024, 1,933 over the decade, 69 percent surface-irrigation aerobic — but for a county of 18,000 next door to College Station’s spillover growth, septic is simply how houses work here. Installation planning starts with a licensed installer by law; the Burleson County permit guide walks the sequence, and pumping costs complete the picture.

Burleson County office: Courthouse, 100 W. Buck St., Suite 303, Caldwell — (979) 567-2360, weekdays 8–5. Application sequence here.