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New septic system installation on lots with no sewer connection
Design, filing and construction for lots with no sewer connection.
Nanaimo Septic Systems designs and installs new septic systems on lots with no sewer connection, across Nanaimo, Cedar, Lantzville, Nanoose Bay and Gabriola Island. We design your system as an Authorized Person, file it with Island Health before we dig, and send the Letter of Certification within 30 days of finishing. Your soil depth, your slope and the 30 m separation from any domestic well decide whether you end up with a Type 1, Type 2 or Type 3.
Every new build outside the six small sewer service areas of the Regional District of Nanaimo needs its own treatment and disposal system. What your ground will take decides the system you get. We have to show the soil can take the load before anyone digs.
No two lots price the same. What moves the price is the effluent standard your soil forces, the type and area of disposal field, how deep we have to dig, whether the field needs pressure distribution or raised sand, and how close a truck can get. Design and filing are quoted separately from construction.
What the site assessment looks for
Soil depth to a restrictive layer, slope, drainage, and the seasonal signs of a high winter water table, along with the position of every well, property line, building and water line. Island Health's published subdivision standards set 30 m from a well, 30 m from the natural boundary of tidal and non-tidal water, 3 m from a parcel boundary, and a minimum soil depth of 0.46 m to 1.2 m depending on soil type, slope and water supply. Those distances usually decide where your field can go.
What actually separates Type 1, Type 2 and Type 3
The Sewerage System Regulation classifies systems by effluent quality. A Type 1 system is treatment by septic tank alone. A Type 2 system must produce effluent consistently under 45 mg/L total suspended solids and under 45 mg/L five-day biochemical oxygen demand. A Type 3 system must reach under 10 mg/L on both, with a median fecal coliform density below 400 CFU per 100 mL. Higher treatment lets a smaller or shallower disposal area do the same work, and a tight lot often needs Type 2 to fit.
Who is allowed to design and file
A Registered Onsite Wastewater Practitioner registered with ASTTBC may file Type 1 and Type 2 systems under 9,100 litres per day. A Professional — an engineer or geoscientist — may file any type and higher flows. You may build a system yourself only under the supervision of an Authorized Person. Responsibility for the system sits with the Authorized Person who signs it.
Do you replace whole septic systems?
Yes, we do. If your lot already has a system, we take the old tank and field out of service and put in a new one. We design and file a septic replacement with Island Health the same way as a new system. We send the Letter of Certification within 30 days of finishing. What a septic tank replacement costs you is the same range as a new system, before design and filing. A Type 1 — a tank and a disposal field — runs you $8,000 – $18,000. Add pressure distribution and you're at $15,000 – $25,000. A Type 2 runs you $25,000 – $40,000. If only the disposal field has to go, you're at $12,000 – $30,000.
System types quoted
Type 1 system
A septic tank and a disposal field. Where the slope allows, the water moves by gravity; otherwise we add a pump.
Pressure distribution
Effluent dosed evenly across the field, used where soil is shallow or the usable area is tight.
Type 2 treatment
Treatment to under 45 mg/L before the field, which reduces the disposal area a site has to find.
How a new system reaches certification
- 1
Soil logging and site survey — test pits, soil depth, slope, and every setback measured on the ground.
- 2
Design and sizing — effluent standard, field type and field area set by what the soil log will support.
- 3
Record of Sewerage System filed — plans, specifications and a scaled site plan lodged with Island Health before excavation.
- 4
Construction — tank, distribution and disposal field built to the filed design.
- 5
Letter of Certification — filed within 30 days of completion with an as-built diagram and a maintenance plan.
What the ground here does
The Nanaimo Lowland is built up in layers: Quadra Sand, over 75 m thick in places and the most important water-bearing unit, sits beneath Vashon Drift till up to 30 m thick that acts as a confining layer, with a clayey silt aquitard of the Cowichan Head Formation below. On a given lot that means we log soil depth in more than one place before we design anything. In South Wellington, small-lot density means some wells sit closer than the 30 m separation distance to a septic field.
A typical case
- Situation
- A two-acre lot east of Cedar Road, building a new house, with a drilled well near the road frontage.
- Complication
- The only level ground sits within 30 m of the well, and the soil log hits dense till at 0.7 m.
- Resolution
- The disposal field moves uphill behind the house and the design steps up to a Type 2 standard, which reduces the field area enough to clear both the well separation and the 3 m parcel boundary.
People also ask
Is a septic permit required in the Regional District of Nanaimo?
Not a permit. Under the Sewerage System Regulation, a septic system gets filed rather than permitted. That filing is still one of the documents the Regional District of Nanaimo lists on its building permit checklist, for any property with no municipal sewer connection.
Can I build my own septic system in British Columbia?
Yes, but only under the supervision of an Authorized Person. The design and the filing still have to come from a Registered Onsite Wastewater Practitioner or a Professional.
What happens after the system is built?
Once construction wraps up, the Authorized Person has 30 days to send Island Health a Letter of Certification — an as-built diagram plus a maintenance plan covering the system as it was actually built.
Does Island Health inspect the installation?
No. Island Health checks that a filing meets minimum submission criteria. It does not inspect the work, approve the design, or review the filing for technical merit.
A design connects to three other things: a system inspection, typical cost drivers, and the Island Health filing process.
Septic service in Cedar is covered separately.
Find out what the ground will take.
Free site assessments across Nanaimo and surrounding areas.
Text or call (236) 362-1344