How to Find Your Septic Tank and Get the Records

ADPH states that a property owner can contact the local health department to request septic tank information. A records request can return a diagram of the actual system installation along with other information about the system.

That diagram is the useful part. It tells you where the tank, the lids, and the drain field actually sit, which is information you otherwise buy with a shovel or a locating service.

Requests go through the county environmental office, not a central state office.

A standard home inspection does not evaluate the septic system. If you are buying rural property, the septic system is one of the more expensive things that can go wrong and one of the least examined.

Pulling the records before closing tells you when the system was permitted, what type it is, and where it sits. An older system with no record at all is itself a finding worth knowing about while you still have leverage.

Knowing where the drain field runs decides what you can put on top of it. EPA's guidance is to avoid parking or driving on a drain field, keep trees far enough away that roots cannot reach it, and direct rainwater drainage away from the area, because excess water slows the treatment process.

Every one of those is easier to honor when you know where the field actually is. Pouring a slab or planting a row of trees over it is an expensive way to find out.

Systems predating the current permitting process may have no useful file. In that case a septic professional can locate the tank and lids directly, and an inspection with a pump-out will tell you the condition of what is there.

Once you know, mark it. A record of where the lids are saves money on every service call for the rest of the time you own the property, because locating and uncovering a buried lid is billable time.