The septic system permit for a home

It is Chapter 9.8 of Joint Regulation No. 9473. SIDDD stands for Individual Domestic Waste Disposal System, and the chapter applies to every construction permit application for an individual dwelling that has one, and to modifications or remodelling of existing dwellings involving changes to the system. Activities covered by DRNA’s Underground Injection Control Regulation are excluded; if your project involves a system or activity covered by that regulation, those permits are obtained from DRNA.

Every project or activity involving the construction of one or more individual dwellings, where each dwelling will have a SIDDD, requires an authorisation for those systems. And the regulation puts it negatively: no person shall cause or permit the construction or modification of a SIDDD for an individual dwelling or residence without holding the proper OGPe authorisation.

• Filing the SIDDD’s information, plans, specifications and design calculations as part of the dwelling’s construction permit application.Verified against the official source
• Filing the information relating to the system’s operation and use as part of the Permiso Único application.Verified against the official source
• Contracting a Construction Works Inspector and notifying OGPe at least five (5) days before construction is due to finish, so the system is inspected before it is covered with fill.Verified against the official source
• Filing the Authorised Inspector’s sealed and signed certification that construction matched the permit, and the owner’s or operator’s signed certification that they will operate the system per the operation and maintenance procedures.Verified against the official source
• Filing and obtaining OGPe approval of a Closure Plan before abandoning the system, and submitting the Final Closure Report within five (5) days of the closure.Verified against the official source

• A legible-scale plot plan of the property, sealed, signed and certified by the professional who prepared it, with the location and dimensions of all system components, the lines from the residence, the distances to boundaries and other structures, the neighbours’ names and the presence of flood zones.
• On that same plan: where the percolation test, the water-table determination and the soil study were done; the access roads with kilometre and hectometre; and the potable water line that will serve the property.
• Also on the plan: extraction wells within a horizontal distance of one hundred (100) metres of the system’s components, and water bodies — streams, rivers, lakes — springs, sinkholes and wetland areas within one hundred (100) feet.
• A soil study signed and certified by the professional who prepared it, with the percolation test result, the water-table determination and the ground’s permeability.
• Design plans and specifications for the system and its equipment, the design criteria and calculations, the operational data, and the operation and maintenance procedures sealed and signed by the licensed professional who designed it.

1. 1

   Step 1: What counts as a SIDDD

   The chapter applies to four configurations: a septic tank with a seepage well; a septic tank with percolation trenches; a septic tank with percolation beds; or a retention tank. It applies both to the construction permit application for an individual dwelling that has one and to modifications or remodelling of existing dwellings involving changes to the system. And it applies negatively: no person shall cause or permit the construction or modification of a SIDDD without proper OGPe authorisation.

2. 2

   Step 2: What this chapter does not cover

   Activities covered by DRNA’s Underground Injection Control Regulation are not covered here. However, any project or activity regulated by the Joint Regulation that involves a system or activity covered by the UIC rule must obtain those permits from DRNA. They are two different counters and it is worth knowing which one you are at before filing.

3. 3

   Step 3: The system goes inside the house’s permit

   There is no separate application for the septic system. The information, plans and specifications, design calculations and other documents relating to the SIDDD’s construction must be filed as part of the construction permit application submitted to OGPe for the dwelling. OGPe evaluates the application and, if it authorises the system, includes the requirements for its construction and operation in the case’s final determination. Everything filed must meet the design and construction criteria of the Codes adopted by OGPe.

4. 4

   Step 4: The plot plan and its distances

   It is the most demanding piece and the one that decides whether the system can go where you want it. The plot plan, at a legible scale, sealed, signed and certified by the professional who prepared it, must clearly identify: the location of all system components with their length, width and depth; the line system carrying waste from the residence to the system; the distance from the components to boundaries, to the residence and to other structures; the neighbours’ names; the presence of flood zones on the property; and where the percolation test, the water-table determination and the soil study were done. Plus the access roads with kilometre and hectometre, and the potable water line that will serve it.

5. 5

   Step 5: A hundred metres and a hundred feet

   Two different radii, and the regulation writes them in different units. The plan must identify extraction wells within a horizontal distance of one hundred metres of the system’s components. And it must identify water bodies — streams, rivers, lakes — within one hundred feet; springs on the property or within one hundred feet of the components; sinkholes within the property or within one hundred feet of it; and wetland areas within the property or within one hundred feet. The mixed units are the regulation’s, not ours.

6. 6

   Step 6: The inspection before covering

   This is the one most often skipped and the most expensive to skip. Every SIDDD must be inspected once construction ends and before the system is covered with fill. For that the owner or their authorised representative must contract a Construction Works Inspector and notify OGPe at least five days before construction is due to finish. The inspector inspects all parts of the system under the applicable Building Code. If defects are found in materials, design, location or construction, the works owner must correct them and have the system re-inspected before covering it.

7. 7

   Step 7: The annual inspection and modifications

   It does not end when it is covered. Every system to be modified to add components, expand its capacity or replace equipment must be inspected by an Authorised Inspector to verify the modification meets the regulation, the Building Code and the authorisation issued. And the Authorised Inspector must carry out at least one annual inspection of the waste management systems to verify compliance with the operation and maintenance procedures set in the Permiso Único.

8. 8

   Step 8: If you buy the house, you buy the system

   The permit transfer section is one sentence and worth reading before signing: any person who acquires a property where the construction or use of a SIDDD is authorised acquires all the rights and obligations relating to it and is responsible for any prior contamination relating to it. That is, earlier contamination travels with the property.

9. 9

   Step 9: What is prohibited

   The regulation lists eleven prohibitions. No person shall promote or permit: building or operating a SIDDD in breach of the regulation, of the permit’s conditions or of applicable state and federal law; disposing into the system of any substance or waste other than exclusively domestic waste; installing or using any device, additive or measure not authorised in the permit; abandoning a SIDDD without an approved Closure Plan, without the closure activities carried out and without the final report submitted; injecting underground so that a contaminant appears in an underground source of drinking water that may affect health or violate the federal Safe Drinking Water Act or DRNA’s Class SG standards; letting the system become inoperative or altering the manufacturer’s specifications or the conditions under which OGPe approved it; building or operating latrines or standalone seepage wells — wells receiving waste directly without a septic tank ahead of them; disposing into the system of runoff, rainwater, cooling water or condensate from refrigeration or air conditioning compressors; disposing of hazardous waste; building an underground-injection system in flood zones; and disposing into the system of waste from vehicle maintenance or repair, such as used oil, grease, solvents, fuel or petroleum hydrocarbon derivatives.

10. 10

    Step 10: Closing it, and the difference from a temporary closure

    An owner or operator intending to close a SIDDD must file a Closure Plan with OGPe. Once approved, the required activities to empty the waste and close the system are carried out. Within five days of the closure a Final Closure Report is submitted to OGPe, certified by an Authorised Inspector that it was done per the approved plan and in compliance with applicable laws and regulations. And there is a practical exception: where the dwelling is temporarily closed, the SIDDD must be emptied and cleaned first, but that temporary closure does not require filing a Closure Plan.

Before OGPe, inside the dwelling’s construction permit application and, for the operation part, inside the Permiso Único application. Permits and authorisations in historic sites and zones, plazas and surrounding blocks — the towns’ founding centres — additionally require a recommendation from the Puerto Rican Institute of Culture. The chapter publishes no fees or decision deadlines, and this guide does not invent them.

• Treating the septic system as a separate procedure: it goes inside the dwelling’s construction permit application.
• Covering the system with fill before it is inspected.
• Not notifying OGPe five days before construction finishes.
• Filing the plan without identifying extraction wells within a hundred metres or water bodies, springs, sinkholes or wetlands within a hundred feet.
• Installing a standalone seepage well with no septic tank ahead of it: the regulation expressly prohibits it.
• Connecting rainwater, runoff or air-conditioning condensate to the system.
• Buying a property with a SIDDD without knowing you answer for prior contamination.
• Abandoning the system without an approved Closure Plan and the final report within five days.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Oficina de Gerencia de Permisos (OGPe)

  OGPe

  docs.pr.gov

• Permit Management Office

  ogpe

  ogpe.pr.gov