First, confirm you're actually on septic
Many Bucks County homes are on public sewer, and a backup in a sewered house is a different problem with a different fix. If you aren't sure, check who provides your water and sewer before you call anyone about a septic permit. If you do have septic, the county keeps past septic and well records and takes requests by email through its Environmental Records page, so ask for your system's permit file. Knowing where the tank and absorption area are saves digging later.
What the 2026 county fees look like
These come from the Department of Health's 2026 fee schedule (form ADM-71). The county says its fees are non-refundable.
- Repair evaluation request (no added sewage flow): $600
- Repair permit to replace components such as a tank or distribution box, not the absorption area: $225
- Repair permit for the absorption area itself (elevated sand mound, trenches, beds or IRSIS) or refacing an existing system: $650
- Alternate or experimental system permit, new or repair: $850 per equivalent dwelling unit (a single-family house on its own lot counts as one)
- Repair holding tank or temporary holding tank permit: $350
These are county fees only. Excavation, the designer's or surveyor's work, and the repair itself are separate costs set by whoever you hire.
How the SA-53 repair evaluation works
The SA-53 form (revised November 2025) is mailed with the fee to the Bucks County Department of Health at Neshaminy Manor Center, 1282 Almshouse Road, Doylestown, PA 18901. The form says plainly that it is not a permit application. It starts the evaluation that tells you what kind of repair permit you'll need. The form asks for:
- A plot plan drawn to a scale of 1 inch = 100 feet, showing property lines, your well and any neighbors' wells, buildings, known septic parts, the driveway and any rights-of-way
- Property lines, water supplies within 100 feet and the sewage system staked out before the visit
- The tank's manhole and the inlet and outlet baffle ports uncovered, along with the distribution box or header pipe
- A backhoe and operator on site, with the owner or a written-authorized agent present
- A PA One Call serial number before any soil testing, which you get by calling 811 or 1-800-242-1776
Under the county rules, the evaluation can include soil test pits, two upslope and two downslope of the proposed area, plus a percolation test of at least six holes. Leave the digging and tank uncovering to the crew you hire. Septic tanks hold toxic gases and an open tank is a fall hazard, so this isn't a homeowner job.
Rules that catch people out
- If you live in the carbonate (limestone) valleys, which are Springfield and Durham Townships and Riegelsville Borough in the Durham Valley, and Buckingham and Solebury Townships in the Buckingham Valley, county staff do the site evaluation and an office conference is held first.
- Technical data for a permit must be prepared by a registered professional engineer, a professional land surveyor or another professional the county approves. The plot plan for a permit application must come from a Professional Land Surveyor and be signed or sealed.
- The system can't be covered until the SEO gives written Approval to Cover, and a final inspection follows. The rules also say a permit or Approval to Cover is not a guarantee that the system will work.
- A permit expires if work hasn't started within three years.
Your township may have its own requirements as well; here's why rules differ from one Bucks County township to the next. The county's SEO territory map lists which officer covers each municipality, and the Sewage Program office is at 215-345-3318.
Signs a repair may be coming
Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection lists these warning signs: slow toilets, sewage odors in the house or in your drinking water, sponginess or surfacing sewage over the tank or absorption area, a dosing pump running all the time or not at all, a dosing alarm light, and backups into laundry tubs or other fixtures. If you have a well near the system, testing your well water is worth doing when these show up.
DEP also recommends pumping at least every three to five years, an annual inspection, keeping records, and keeping downspouts, sump pumps, heavy vehicles and trees away from the system. In Bucks County, every truck that pumps or hauls sewage needs a yearly county license, and the county posts an approved hauler list you can check before you book a pump-out.
Help paying for it
The county's Sewage Program page notes that PENNVEST, working with the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency, offers low-cost financing to repair or replace on-lot systems, or to connect to public sewer for the first time.