Septic Tank Pumping in Hartford County, CT

• Coverage includes Avon, Canton, Farmington, Simsbury, Granby, East Granby, Hartland, Burlington, Marlborough, Glastonbury, Southington and Suffield.
• Crews run I-84, I-91, US 44, US 202 and Route 10 through the Farmington Valley.
• Other Connecticut counties on this site: Middlesex County and New Haven County, plus the Connecticut septic guide.
• Before you call: know which health district covers your town; fees and forms differ between districts.

• Routine pump-outs on older suburban homes
• Pumping and inspection before a sale
• Repair evaluations after a failing field
• Locating tanks and adding risers
• Pumping before an addition or B100a review
• Building sewer pipe repairs between house and tank

• Pumping price: HomeGuide's nationwide range is $300 to $700 a pump-out, figured at $0.30 to $0.70 per gallon, and the 1,000- to 1,250-gallon tanks common in Farmington Valley homes fall in the middle.
• District fees from the Farmington Valley Health District schedule: $275 for a new system permit, $380 for a repair evaluation, $215 for a repair permit without leaching fields and $270 with them.
• The district's schedule lists $165 to observe a soil test and $110 for a building-sewer-only repair.
• Method: HomeGuide's per-gallon range scaled to your tank, plus the local district's fee schedule. Ledge, tight lots and long hoses down steep driveways add local cost.

• Step 1, who permits: under Connecticut's Public Health Code, Sections 19-13-B100a and 19-13-B103, the local director of health permits systems of 10,000 gallons a day or less.
• Step 2, larger systems: systems between 2,000 and 10,000 gallons a day also need plan approval from the state DPH, per the department.
• Step 3, new system: in Farmington Valley Health District towns, the new system permit is $275, and soil test observation is $165 per lot.
• Step 4, repairs: the district lists $380 for a repair evaluation and $215 or $270 for a repair permit, depending on whether leaching fields are replaced.
• Step 5, owner-built: the district lists $545 for a system built by the owner or occupant.

• Glacial till and ledge: much of the county outside the Connecticut River valley has dense till over shallow bedrock, which limits the depth of leaching systems; the valley floor near the Farmington River has sand and silt with a seasonal high water table.
• USDA NRCS soil survey data rate 89.6% of the Hartford County survey area (CT003) as very limited for septic absorption fields.
• Drumlins and hard-pan till along the ridges west of the river slow drainage, and wet soils near streams and wetlands push systems toward raised or engineered designs.
• Census ACS counts about 416,559 housing units in the Capitol Planning Region, which replaced Hartford County as a census unit, with a median year built of 1966.
• Frost and freezing: long winters can freeze shallow lines, so pumping in winter needs lids that can be reached.
• Reading the soil: ledge near the traprock ridges along Talcott Mountain, between Avon and Bloomfield, and the Metacomet Ridge through Farmington, leaves little room for a leaching system, while sand and gravel near the Farmington River in Simsbury and Canton drain well but sit over a high water table. Clay pockets and hard-pan till in Granby and Hartland slow percolation and lead to raised or mound-style designs.
• Many older homes built in the 1950s and 1960s still have steel or concrete tanks that are smaller than current designs, and a pump-out is a good time to check baffles and the outlet tee.
• Wetland setbacks and Connecticut's inland wetlands rules can also shape where a repair goes, so the health district and the town's wetlands office may both review it.

Avon · Canton · Farmington · Simsbury · Granby · East Granby · Hartland · Burlington · Marlborough