St. Johns County · Northeast Florida
Septic & well services in St. Augustine
Much of St. Augustine was platted long before anyone was thinking about drain fields. That is the problem this city hands you: a lot with a house, a well and a set of setbacks, and not much room left for a field. What fits is decided on the parcel, not on the street.
Crews with 20+ years in the tradeLicensed & insuredOne-year warranty
Septic backing up? Call us now.
Sewage in the yard or the house, a tank that won’t drain, or a well with no water. Call and you will get a person and a straight answer about when we can be there.
Working in St. Augustine
In and around the historic district, and out onto Anastasia Island, Davis Shores and Vilano Beach, the constraint is usually space. A lot platted long before modern setbacks may not have room for a conventional drain field once the separations from the well, the property lines and surface water are taken out of it.
That is the situation aerobic treatment units exist for. Where a conventional field cannot be permitted, a system that treats to a higher standard often can, and on a tight coastal lot it is frequently the only route to a working system.
Salt in well water is the other thing people ask about, and the honest answer starts with what has been measured. A 1984 USGS study of St. Johns County looked at that. In the southwest of the county, heavy pumping for irrigation had pushed chloride levels up in the Floridan aquifer. The study put the water quality there down to ancient seawater in the rock and to minerals dissolving into it. Those are 1984 findings from one part of the county, not a reading for any well in St. Augustine.
The part of this a homeowner can act on is the condition of the wells on the property. An abandoned well left unsealed, or a corroded casing on an old one, can act as a pipe between water of very different quality. Properly abandoning a well you no longer use is not paperwork. It is how you protect the one you still rely on.
That is also why a test result is worth keeping. Chlorides and total dissolved solids are what a water test reports, and the direction they move across several tests tells you more than any single number. A well that read clean years ago has not been settled for good, and a test is how you would know.
What the ground does here
A site evaluation on the parcel settles what the lot will accept. The soil profile and the wet-season water table it finds decide whether a conventional gravity system is viable, or whether the lot needs a mound or an aerobic treatment unit. On an older lot that finding matters twice over. Thin separation under a drain field also means less soil between the surface and the groundwater a shallow well draws from.
What customers say
“I quickly received an on-sight evaluation and immediate proposal including firm cost. Plus, I can get the job scheduled in a timely manner rather than 6 weeks out.”
Nearby areas we cover
We work across the rest of St. Johns County too — Ponte Vedra Beach. Same crew, same trucks.
Further afield: Jacksonville · Orange Park · Middleburg · Green Cove Springs. Or see every area we serve.
Who issues the permit in St. Johns County
Which office issues it depends on the county, and on which system you are working on.
Septic permits
St. Johns County permits are issued by the county health department. Florida moved oversight of the onsite sewage program to DEP on 1 July 2021, but permitting moved later — DEP began issuing permits itself in sixteen Northwest Florida counties on 2 January 2025 and added Marion County that July. St. Johns has not transitioned.
Well permits
Well construction in St. Johns County falls under the St. Johns River Water Management District, under Chapters 40C-3 and 62-532 of the Florida Administrative Code. The District does not take the application itself, though: it delegates well permitting to local health departments, so the permit is issued by the St. Johns County health department under its delegation agreement with the District. Four kinds of well stay with the District. It permits wells six inches or greater in outside diameter at land surface, and gang wells whose total nominal casing sizes equal six inches or more, for obtaining water other than for dewatering. It permits open-loop geothermal wells six inches or greater in outside diameter at land surface, and all closed-loop geothermal wells. It permits wells in a delineated area too — an area of known groundwater contamination, or a vulnerable area — in counties that do not regulate them, and St. Johns is one of the counties the District names on that list.
What we do in St. Augustine
Septic work, and the local detail that decides how it has to be built.
Septic
Septic tank pumping
The single job that prevents most of the expensive ones. A tank that is pumped on schedule protects the drain field, and the drain field is the part you do not want to replace.
Read more →Septic
Septic inspections
Most inspections we run are tied to a closing date, and a closing date does not move because a tank was hard to find. Book the inspection early enough that a repair is still an option.
Read more →Septic
New system installation
New construction, a replacement for a system at the end of its life, or an upgrade a county requires. All three start in the same place: what the soil and the water table on your lot will accept.
Read more →Septic
Drain field repair
The most expensive part of a septic system, and the one most often killed by a pump-out that was put off. If the yard is wet and the tank refills fast, this is the conversation.
Read more →Wells
Well inspections
A well inspection is usually bought against a closing date, and a closing date does not move because the well turned out to have a problem. Book it early enough that a repair is still an option.
Read more →Wells
Well pump repair
No water at all, or pressure that comes and goes. Before anything gets replaced, the job is working out which component failed, because the wrong guess is an expensive one.
Read more →St. Augustine septic & well questions
Can you install a septic system on a small lot in St. Augustine?
Often, but not always with a conventional drain field. Lots platted before modern setbacks may not have room once separations from the well, the property lines and surface water are accounted for. Where a conventional field cannot be permitted, an aerobic treatment unit frequently can be, because it treats to a higher standard.
Should I test a private well in St. Augustine for chlorides?
Testing is how you find out, and the trend across tests matters more than one result. Chlorides and total dissolved solids are what the test reports. The measured finding on record for this county is old and is from another part of it: a 1984 USGS study reported that heavy irrigation pumping had raised chloride levels in the Floridan aquifer in southwest St. Johns County. It does not describe your well, and that is the reason to test rather than assume.
Who issues septic permits in St. Johns County?
The St. Johns County health department. Oversight of the onsite sewage program moved to the Department of Environmental Protection on 1 July 2021, but permitting moved later: DEP began issuing permits itself in sixteen Northwest Florida counties on 2 January 2025 and added Marion County that July. St. Johns has not transitioned.
Working on a property in St. Augustine?
Call and tell us what the system is doing. We will tell you what it sounds like and what it takes to find out for certain.