How Often Do You Pump a Septic Tank in Virginia?

The Short Answer

If you live in a Virginia county or city covered by the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act, the regulation says your septic tank has to be pumped out at least once every five years. Northern Virginia’s big septic counties all have a five-year requirement in their own county code: Loudoun, Fairfax and Prince William counties require a pump-out every 5 years.

Outside the Bay Act area there’s no statewide pump-out schedule. The usual advice from health departments is every three to five years for a typical household, sooner for a small tank, a big family or a garbage disposal. Pumping isn’t only a rule to follow: solids that build up in the tank wash into the drainfield, and a clogged drainfield is the expensive repair every homeowner wants to avoid.

Where the Five Years Comes From

The Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act is a Virginia water-quality law for the counties, cities and towns whose streams drain to the Bay, which includes most of Tidewater and Northern Virginia. Its regulations, in 9VAC25-830, set “general performance criteria” for development in those areas. Item 7 of 9VAC25-830-130 is the part about septic tanks. For onsite sewage systems that don’t need a discharge permit, localities must require owners to “have pump-out accomplished for all such systems at least once every five years.”

The regulation also gives localities two alternatives they may offer, but don’t have to:

• An effluent filter. With the local health department’s approval, the owner can install and maintain a plastic filter in the pipe leaving the tank instead of pumping on a fixed schedule.
• An inspection certificate. Every five years, a licensed operator or onsite soil evaluator can certify that the system was inspected, is working properly, and the tank doesn’t need to be pumped.

Each county writes its own ordinance to carry this out, which is why the details, notices and forms differ from one county to the next.

County by County

Fairfax County

Chapter 68.1 of the Fairfax County Code says owners “shall have the septic tank pumped out a minimum of once every five (5) years.” The Health Department’s own advice is simple: if it has been more than five years, or you don’t remember when it was last done, have it pumped. Pumping contractors record each pump-out in the county’s PLUS system, so the county has a record of it.

Prince William County

Section 23-48 of the Prince William County Code requires owners of systems that don’t need a VPDES discharge permit to “have pump-out accomplished at least once every five years.” The pumping contractor fills out a pump-out manifest for the Prince William Health District, which is how the county keeps track.

Loudoun County

Loudoun County’s onsite sewage ordinance (Chapter 1066 of the Codified Ordinances) requires county-licensed septic tank cleaners to report every pump-out to the Loudoun County Health Department by the 15th of the following month, and TankVault tracks Loudoun systems on the same five-year cycle. Owners of alternative systems in Loudoun also need a yearly inspection under Chapter 1067.

Everywhere else in the Bay Act area

Cities and counties from Fredericksburg to Virginia Beach run pump-out programs under the same regulation. Most mail a notice when your five years are up and ask for proof from the pumper. Your local health department or the county’s environmental office can tell you what they accept.

Proving You Did It

Five years is the outside limit, not a target. Slow drains, gurgling, sewage smells, wet spots over the drainfield or a tank that’s more than a third full of sludge and scum mean it’s time now, whatever the calendar says. A pumper can measure the sludge depth in a few minutes while they’re on site.

Keep the receipt from every pump-out. Counties that send notices usually want the pumper’s name, the date and the tank size, and some have a form the pumper signs. If your house sells, the next owner will want the same records. If you have an alternative (AOSS) system, remember that the pump-out is on top of the yearly operator visit and lab samples, not instead of them. See Virginia AOSS inspection requirements.

How TankVault Helps

For homeowners, the free TankVault homeowner app keeps the last pump-out date and the next due date for your system, with the county rule to tap, and reminds you before it’s due. For septic companies, TankVault puts pump-out due dates on the same list as inspections and samples, sends customers an email reminder, and fills in the Prince William pump-out manifest for the operator. See what it does for septic companies.

Related reading: North Carolina operator inspections (North Carolina pumps by sludge depth, not by the calendar) and discharging systems and the VAG40 permit, which have no drainfield to protect but their own visit schedule.

Questions and Answers

More Guides

• Virginia AOSS Inspection Requirements, Explained
• North Carolina Septic Operator Inspections (15A NCAC 18E)
• What Is a Discharging Septic System? (VAG40 Permit)

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