Sourced from the Newberry County Water and Sewer Authority Sewer Use Ordinance (adopted January 19, 2017), Newberry County Planning and Zoning, the Newberry County Comprehensive Plan 2033 (adopted March 20, 2024), the Dominion Energy Lake Murray Permitting Guidelines, and R.61-56 — last checked August 2026.
Who Issues Newberry County Septic Permits
This is the part that surprises people moving to South Carolina from almost anywhere else: Newberry County does not issue septic permits, and neither does any other South Carolina county. Onsite wastewater permitting is a state function.
The agency is the South Carolina Department of Environmental Services (SCDES), created on July 1, 2024 when Act 60 of 2023 split the old DHEC into SCDES for environmental programs and SC DPH for public health. Septic sits in SCDES’s Bureau of Regional and Laboratory Services.
Where the application goes: ATTN: OSWW, SCDES, 2600 Bull Street, Columbia, SC 29201
Statewide phone: 1-855-731-2504 (Onsite Wastewater Customer Service Center)
Online: epermitting.des.sc.gov
Form: D-1740, revision 07/2026
The Fee Is the Same in Every County: $150
Because permitting is centralized, there is one fee statewide. R.61-56 § 102.2: the Department “shall charge a fee of one hundred and fifty dollars ($150.00) to evaluate the site of a proposed onsite wastewater system.” That section was amended effective May 27, 2022. Payment is by check or money order to SCDES, and there is a $150 re-application fee if the application instructions are not followed.
There is a second route worth knowing about. You may hire a Professional Soil Classifier to do the evaluation privately, and the rules cap what they may charge at “no more than three (3) times SCDES’s fee” — so up to $450 (form DES 25-0011, dated 07/2025). People use it to skip the queue, and the queue is real: SCDES reported a 700-permit backlog in April 2023, and coastal counties have run six to fourteen weeks behind.
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300 Feet, 90 Days — and No Repairs Where Sewer Exists
The state sets no mandatory connection distance at all. Newberry supplies three separate rules where the state supplies none. From the NCWSA Sewer Use Ordinance, adopted January 19, 2017:
- Any owner within the NCWSA service area “shall install sewer connections or taps within 90 days after the property… becomes accessible to the NCWSA sewer lines.”
- Properties within 300 feet of a public sewer must install suitable toilet facilities and connect directly, within 90 days of official notice.
- Where public sewers serve, it is “unlawful to construct or maintain any privy, privy vault, septic tanks, cesspool, or other facility intended or used for the disposal of wastewater” — and “no repairs thereof shall be permitted if a sewer line is available for connection thereto.”
There is an exception: owners with previously installed tanks that meet current specifications may continue using them with NCWSA approval, subject to state and local health requirements. That is continued use, not a right to repair.
The Installer Letter — a Second County Gate
Newberry County Planning and Zoning will not issue a zoning permit for a residence without “a letter on letterhead from a septic system installer stating functionality of an in-ground system.”
And it applies to existing systems, not just new ones. The county’s own FAQ is explicit: asked whether an older existing system still needs this, the answer is “Yes! We will need a letter from a septic system installer that the system is still functional.”
So if you are putting a home on land in Newberry County with an existing septic system, add a call to an installer to your critical path. A zoning permit also requires a recorded plat, the state septic permit, and a 911 address.
Lake Murray: Dominion Energy Forbids Septic, It Does Not Permit It
Newberry County borders Lake Murray, and this is the most misunderstood rule on the lake.
The lake is a Dominion Energy South Carolina hydro project under a federal FERC license. Its Lake Murray Permitting Guidelines set the boundary at the 360-foot contour — the normal maximum pool elevation — and § IX.4(e) prohibits, below that contour or within vegetative buffer zones: “No septic tanks and/or drain fields.”
We found no Dominion shoreline lease requirement tied to septic approval. If someone tells you there is a lease gate for your septic system, ask them to cite it.
The Data Center Moratorium
On July 16, 2026, Newberry County Council voted unanimously to confirm a 12-month moratorium on data centers, extendable. The council had earlier given initial approval to an ordinance allowing a developer to buy land for one, then reversed course after a packed public hearing at the Newberry Opera House in June 2026 and denied it. Residents raised three objections: strain on the water supply, a surge in electric rates, and continuous industrial noise.
Why this belongs on a septic page: large-load development is what usually justifies extending sewer into unsewered areas. A moratorium on the largest prospective load in the county makes near-term sewer extension less likely — which means the 300-foot rule will keep applying to the same properties it applies to now.
The Rule That Costs the Most Money: Six Inches
South Carolina requires a minimum vertical separation of six inches between the deepest point of effluent application and the zone of saturation — the level groundwater reaches — for systems under 1,500 gallons per day (R.61-56 § 200.3).
Six inches is remarkably little, and the comparison is the fastest way to understand it:
- South Carolina — 6 inches
- North Carolina — 18 inches on the coast, 12 inches inland
- Georgia — 24 inches
- Alabama — 24 inches
South Carolina permits systems on ground its neighbors would refuse. That is legal, and it is also why Newberry’s Comprehensive Plan 2033 includes a county map of septic soil absorption ratings, which is a better starting point than most counties offer.
The Repair Area Nobody Tells You About
Under R.61-56 § 200.7, a new system must reserve “a usable repair or replacement area equivalent to at least fifty (50) percent of the size of the original system” — 100 percent for community systems.
Read that as a land requirement, because that is what it is. Your lot has to hold the tank, the drainfield, and half a drainfield again in reserve, while still meeting every setback. On a tight lot that reserve area is what fails, not the drainfield itself. And in Newberry there is a second trap: if sewer is available to your property, the local ordinance bars repairs outright — see below.
Setbacks and Sizing in Newberry County
These come from R.61-56 and apply identically statewide:
- 75 feet from a private well · 100 feet from a public well
- 75 feet from the mean high water line of a stream, canal or retention pond, and from a delineated critical area line (tidal waters and tidelands)
- 25 feet from a drainage ditch · 25 feet upslope of a basement
- 5 feet from a property line · 5 feet from a building
- Rock or a restrictive horizon must sit more than 12 inches below the deepest point of effluent application
There is no state minimum lot size for a septic lot. R.61-56 requires only that the lot be large enough to hold the system, the reserve area and the setbacks. We could not confirm whether the county zoning ordinance imposes a minimum lot size for septic. What we can tell you is that Newberry Planning and Zoning charges $20 per zoning permit (undated) and is at 1512 Martin Street, Newberry, SC 29108, (803) 321-2166.
When Sewer Blocks a Septic Permit
R.61-56 § 300 is blunt: “Permits for new onsite wastewater systems shall not be issued where a wastewater treatment facility is accessible for connection,” and the same bar applies to repairing or replacing a failing system.
But the state sets no distance. “Accessible” is defined only negatively — “where annexation or easements to cross adjacent property are required to connect… the wastewater treatment facility shall not be considered accessible.” So if connecting would require you to be annexed, or to cross a neighbor’s land, sewer is not accessible and your septic permit stands.
The Newberry County Water and Sewer Authority, a special purpose district established in 1963, tells you everything with two numbers: it serves roughly 4,000 drinking water customers but only about 500 sewer customers, across 350 miles of water main and 40 sewer pump stations, with 16 full-time staff. That is a utility customer ratio, not a household septic percentage — do not let anyone convert it into one. But it is the clearest available evidence that Newberry County outside its municipalities is overwhelmingly on septic. The City of Newberry and the Town of Whitmire also operate systems.
What We Could Not Confirm
Any minimum lot size for septic in the county zoning ordinance, and the date of the $20 zoning permit fee.
Whether the county zoning ordinance adds any Lake Murray septic provision of its own on top of Dominion’s exclusion. We found none, but we could not read the whole ordinance.
Any count or percentage of Newberry County homes on septic. Verified absent from the Comprehensive Plan 2033. The 4,000-to-500 utility ratio is a proxy and nothing more. The plan does contain Map 5-3, septic tank soil absorption ratings (p. 5-9) and Table 7-5, wastewater management facilities (p. 7-12) — both worth a look if you are evaluating land.
Where Newberry County Sits
Newberry sits between Columbia and Greenville with Lake Murray along its south-eastern edge and Lake Greenwood to the west. It is a county with a water system that reaches eight times as many customers as its sewer system, which is the practical definition of septic country — and yet where sewer does reach, the local rules are unusually unforgiving.
Nearby counties we cover: Kershaw County · Clarendon County. All of them run through the same state permit and the same $150 fee — what differs is the local ordinance layer, which is compared on our South Carolina septic permits by county page.
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