What is an alternative septic system?
An alternative septic system is a treatment works that is not a conventional onsite sewage system, meaning one or more septic tanks feeding a gravity distributed subsurface drainfield, and that does not result in a point source discharge. In Virginia it carries duties of its own: a professional engineer's seal on the plans unless a licensing exemption applies, a recorded instrument before the operation permit, and licensed operator visits.
Where natural soil runs thin, the effluent is treated before it reaches the ground
Follow one system from the start. Its story can begin with a site where the soil above a limiting feature, such as rock or a water table, is too shallow for plain septic tank effluent.
Virginia's statute sorts systems by definition, not by brand. A conventional onsite sewage system is one or more septic tanks with gravity, pumped or siphoned conveyance to a gravity distributed subsurface drainfield. Anything else that treats sewage onsite without a point source discharge is an alternative onsite sewage system. The short version of both definitions, and how the words show up on a listing, is under alternative septic system and conventional septic system.
For systems with applications filed on or after December 7, 2011, unless the requirement is waived, 12VAC5-613-80 ties how much natural soil a site has above a limiting feature to how far the effluent must be treated before it reaches that soil. The soil depths and treatment levels are tabled under building on land that failed a perc test.
Plans and specifications carry a professional engineer's seal unless an exemption applies
Before any of it is built, the design has to be put on paper by someone licensed to put it there.
The Virginia regulation for alternative systems, 12VAC5-613, governs their design, construction and operation. Under it, all plans and specifications for an alternative system must be properly sealed by a professional engineer licensed in Virginia, unless the plans are prepared under an exemption from the licensing requirements of Title 54.1 of the Code of Virginia. The exemptions themselves are a licensing question for the professional involved, not something to settle from a listing sheet.
For an owner, the practical meaning is that an alternative system has an author. Somewhere there is a set of plans, sealed unless an exemption applied, describing what was approved. When the system is years old and the question is what was installed, those plans and the health department's file are where the answer lives.
An instrument goes into the land records, and only then an operation permit
An alternative system can be finished in the ground and still not be allowed to operate.
The department shall not issue an operation permit for an AOSS until the property owner has recorded an instrument that complies with
12VAC5-613-60, Virginia Administrative Code (quoted to the point where it cross-references the requirements)
The instrument is recorded in the circuit court land records, the same books that hold the deed, so it sits in the public record for the parcel rather than only in an agency file. What a particular instrument says is read in those records, and what it means for a buyer is a question for a Virginia real estate attorney.
Some systems carry more. Large alternative systems, and systems permitted under the regulation's direct dispersal to ground water rules, take a renewable operating permit, a requirement that applies only to systems with applications filed on or after December 7, 2011. What counts as a large system, and how that fits a development, is covered under developing land with no public sewer.
A licensed operator's first visit within 180 days, then one every 12 months
Once the system runs, its maintenance is not left to the owner's judgment; the regulation schedules it.
The operation permit issues
The schedule that follows runs from the date the operation permit is issued.
First operator visit
For a system with an average daily flow of 1,000 gallons per day or less, an operator visits within 180 calendar days of that date.
A visit every 12 months
After the first visit, the same system is visited every 12 months, with any samples the regulation requires collected by the operator.
A log kept on the property
The owner keeps a copy of the operator's log on the property, in paper or electronic form, and makes it available to the department on request.
The O&M manual followed and kept
The owner follows the operation and maintenance manual and keeps a copy of it on the property as well.
VDH says alternative onsite sewage systems are required to be inspected at least annually by a licensed operator, and that all operation and maintenance activities must be performed by an operator properly licensed by the Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation (DPOR). That operation and maintenance part of the regulation applies to all alternative systems, including those with applications filed before December 7, 2011.
The log and the manual are meant to travel with the house
When a property with an alternative system sells, the regulation has already said what should change hands besides the keys.
The owner of an alternative system must make a reasonable effort to transfer both the operator's log and the O&M manual to any future owner. For a seller, that means finding both before the house is listed. For a buyer, the log is the running record of whether the scheduled visits happened, and the manual is how the next owner learns what the system needs.
Whether a buyer or lender will also want a separate septic inspection at the sale, and who is allowed to perform one, is answered under whether you need a septic inspection to sell. Whether any of this moves a price is a different question, taken up under whether a well and septic hurt resale, and how the tank, the lines and the drainfield work together from end to end is laid out in septic systems explained.
Buying or selling a property served by an alternative onsite sewage system?
Tell Lowell where the property is and whether the operator's log and the O&M manual are in hand, and he will go through how that paperwork fits the listing. No cost, no obligation.
Got it. Thank you.
We'll be in touch shortly with an honest read.
Questions this raises
Can a homeowner do the maintenance on an alternative septic system?
Not under VDH's reading of the rules. VDH says all operation and maintenance activities on an alternative onsite sewage system must be performed by an operator properly licensed by DPOR, and the regulation requires the owner to have the system operated and maintained by an operator, visited at the required frequency and sampled as required.
Who keeps the operator's log for an alternative septic system?
The owner does. The regulation requires the owner to keep a copy of the operator's log on the property where the system is located, in paper or electronic form, to make it available to the health department on request, and to make a reasonable effort to transfer it to any future owner, along with the O&M manual.
Where this page's facts come from
Every rule, office and figure above traces to one of these. Rules change; check the office before you act on one.
- Va. Code 32.1-163: definitions of conventional and alternative onsite sewage systems and alternative discharging sewage systems Virginia General Assembly
- 12VAC5-613-30: scope of the alternative onsite sewage system regulations Virginia Department of Health
- 12VAC5-613-40: plans and specifications sealed by a professional engineer Virginia Department of Health
- 12VAC5-613-60: recorded instrument before an operation permit, and renewable operating permits Virginia Department of Health
- 12VAC5-613-80: performance requirements and treatment levels by soil separation Virginia Department of Health
- 12VAC5-613-10: definition of a large AOSS Virginia Department of Health
- 12VAC5-613-90: total nitrogen limit for large systems Virginia Department of Health
- 12VAC5-613-140: owner responsibilities, the operator's log and the O&M manual Virginia Department of Health
- 12VAC5-613-150: minimum operator visit frequency Virginia Department of Health
- Onsite sewage system owner responsibilities Virginia Department of Health
- AOSS operation and maintenance FAQs (PDF) Virginia Department of Health