Three different authorities issue septic permits within Travis County, and many owners learn the hard way. Austin Water regulates on-site systems throughout the City of Austin’s jurisdiction. That includes, by explicit rule, every property with water frontage on Lake Austin or its tributaries, no matter how the lot or drainfield is arranged. The Lower Colorado River Authority covers designated lake zones, and several small cities (West Lake Hills and Bee Cave, among them) run their own programs. Everyone else, unincorporated Travis County plus Leander and Manor, goes through Travis County’s development services desk downtown. First step on any Travis County septic project: confirm which of those rulebooks you’re under.
The city rulebook has real teeth. Austin City Code Chapter 15-5 requires nitrogen-reducing treatment for new systems with drainfields within 75 feet of Lake Austin, in the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone, or in the Barton Springs contributing zone where certain soils are present (a response to studies flagging septic as a possible nitrate source for the lake and aquifer). Qualifying units must average at least 20 mg/L of total nitrogen. Maintenance rules scale with the stakes: standard aerobic systems need a service contract for the first two years; nitrogen-reducing and commercial systems keep one in perpetuity; and since late 2019, every maintenance provider working within city jurisdiction must register with Austin Water.
Terrain drives design on both sides of the jurisdictional line. The Balcones Escarpment divides the county; the western hills stack thin soils on fractured limestone above the aquifer, while the east flattens toward Blackland farm country. The result is the most drip-heavy permit mix of any major Texas county: 382 of 655 systems authorized in 2024, or 58 percent, were drip irrigation, precise subsurface dosing suited to slopes, shallow soils, and nitrogen rules alike. County applications reflect the same caution: site plans must map floodplain status, slopes over 15 percent, and every well within 150 feet, including neighbors’; aerobic and drip systems require a recorded affidavit and maintenance contract. 7,812 systems were permitted countywide over the decade, tenth in Texas.
One consumer break worth knowing: Travis County refunds permit fees for qualifying septic repairs in the Gilleland and Walnut Creek watersheds. Details, forms, and the three-authority decision tree live in our Travis County permit guide; aerobic obligations and pumping rates round out the owner’s math.
Travis County office: 700 Lavaca St., Suite 540, Austin, (512) 854-4215, M–Th 9–2. City-jurisdiction systems: Austin Water. Permit walkthrough here.
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Covers Restricted & Water Quality Zones of Lakes Buchanan, Inks, Lyndon B. Johnson, Marble Falls, and Travis + Cities of Granite Shoals (AA), Horseshoe Bay (AA), Jonestown, Lago Vista, Lakeway; Villages of Briarcliff & Volente
New installs and major repairs need a permit from the local authorized agent — usually the county, sometimes a city — and the rules that bind are the local ones.
Our permit guide covers fees, required professionals and every step.
Four things decide what you can build and what it costs: zoning, environmental protections, power for aerobic systems, and the ground itself. We publish each one only where we have checked it — and say so plainly where the answer is “same as the rest of Texas”.
Zoning & land use
Travis County issues the septic permit for the unincorporated county plus several named cities. It holds that job only because the commissioners court adopted an on-site sewage facility order and TCEQ approved it (Health and Safety Code § 366.031), and § 366.032(b) makes that order prevail wherever it is stricter than 30 TAC Chapter 285. Ask the office for its current order — Texas counties have no general zoning power, so the order, not zoning, is where a local siting rule sits.
Travis County is inside the area 30 TAC Chapter 213 covers. The contributing zone takes in all of it except the watersheds draining to the Colorado River above a point 1.3 miles upstream of Tom Miller Dam. On the recharge zone §285.40's siting rules apply, and where the site needs a TCEQ protection plan the Austin regional office must approve it before the authorized agent issues a permit. §213.5(h)(2) exempts an owner building their own single-family home at 20 percent impervious cover or less. Check the parcel on TCEQ's Edwards map viewer first.
The dominant constraint here is bedrock close to the surface (50.6% of rated soils), followed by clayey subsoil that water moves through too slowly (40.6%). NRCS rates 86.5% of rated ground very limited for a standard soil absorption field, 53.1% for subsurface drip and 21.0% for surface application with disinfection. Where a conventional field will not pass, surface application is usually the route that does.
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