Do You Need a Permit for a Septic System in Campbell River?
Campbell River Septic files your septic paperwork with Island Health, not with the City of Campbell River. The Strathcona Regional District requires building permits in Electoral Area D only, but your Island Health filing applies in all four electoral areas and inside the city alike. We submit the certification letter within 30 days.
Updated August 2026
Two separate systems of paperwork touch a septic job around Campbell River, and they are constantly confused with each other. One is the provincial septic filing, which runs through Island Health. The other is the building permit, which depends entirely on where your property sits.
The filing comes out of the soil assessment and design we do first.
Which rule covers your septic system?
Under 22,700 litres per day is the Sewerage System Regulation. At or above it, the Municipal Wastewater Regulation.
Any building with indoor plumbing that is not connected to a municipal or city sewage system needs a safe method of treating and discharging its sewage. Island Health's role is to make sure that system complies with the Sewerage System Regulation.
A daily design flow under 22,700 litres per day falls under that regulation. It covers single family residences and duplexes, systems serving different structures on one parcel, and systems serving strata lots or a shared interest in land. At 22,700 litres per day or more, the Municipal Wastewater Regulation under the Environmental Management Act applies instead.
Who is allowed to do the work?
A ROWP can be registered in up to five categories, and many practitioners hold more than one.
You have to retain an Authorized Person to construct, alter or repair a sewerage system. An Authorized Person is either a professional or a Registered Onsite Wastewater Practitioner.
A ROWP may design and install Type 1 and Type 2 systems with a daily design flow under 9,100 litres per day, and the registration is issued by the Applied Science Technologists and Technicians Association of BC. The five categories are planner, installer, maintenance provider, private inspector (commercial) and private inspector (residential). A professional may design and install Type 1, 2 and 3 systems up to 22,699 litres per day, and is typically an engineer or geoscientist.
What gets filed, and when?
You cannot put the system into use until the letter of certification is submitted to the health authority.
Before construction, your Authorized Person files a filing form, plans and specifications, a property site plan, and any applicable covenants, easements or hydrogeological reports.
Within 30 days of completing construction, the same person submits a signed letter certifying the system meets the requirements of the Sewerage System Regulation. That letter states that they lawfully constructed the system, that construction is complete, that the system used as intended will not cause or contribute to a health hazard, and that the daily design flow is under 22,700 litres per day. It carries an as-built diagram and a maintenance plan.
| Where your property is | Building permit | Island Health septic filing |
|---|---|---|
| City of Campbell River | Yes — City of Campbell River | Yes |
| Electoral Area A (Kyuquot/Nootka-Sayward) | No building bylaw | Yes |
| Electoral Area B (Cortes Island) | No building bylaw | Yes |
| Electoral Area C (Discovery Islands-Mainland Inlets) | No building bylaw | Yes |
| Electoral Area D (Oyster Bay-Buttle Lake) | Yes — Strathcona Regional District | Yes |
The building-permit column is about buildings. It never changes whether the septic filing applies, and the filing applies in every row.
Building permits: Area D yes, Areas A, B and C no
The Strathcona Regional District requires building permits in Electoral Area D only. A building permit rule is not a septic rule.
The Strathcona Regional District requires building permits for new construction, alteration, addition or demolition of a building or structure in Electoral Area D only. Electoral Areas A, B and C have no building bylaws and require no building permits.
That is a building-permit fact. It says nothing about your septic system. The Island Health filing is provincial, and it applies in all four electoral areas and inside the City of Campbell River just the same. A property in Area A, B or C cannot skip the filing.
What does Island Health actually do with the filing?
Island Health does not approve the design. Responsibility for it sits with the Authorized Person.
Island Health receives your filing and checks that the submission meets minimum criteria. It does not approve the design, and it does not take on responsibility for whether the design suits your parcel. That responsibility sits with the Authorized Person who signed it.
What the Strathcona Regional District takes, and how long
About one week for planning review, then usually one to three weeks for the building inspector.
Where a building permit is needed, the regional district reviews zoning and official community plan conformance first. That usually takes about one week where there are no concerns. The building inspector then usually takes one to three weeks to review and issue the permit where the paperwork is in order. The code the regional district names as your responsibility is the BC Building Code, 2024 edition.
The district covers four electoral areas — Area A, Kyuquot/Nootka-Sayward; Area B, Cortes Island; Area C, Discovery Islands-Mainland Inlets; and Area D, Oyster Bay-Buttle Lake — plus five member municipalities: Campbell River, Gold River, Sayward, Tahsis and Zeballos. It serves over 48,000 residents.
What about a building permit inside the city?
One City of Campbell River application form covers all project types, plumbing among them.
Inside the city, building permits and inspections make sure buildings comply with the safety, health, building and zoning requirements of the City of Campbell River and the Province of British Columbia. One application form covers all project types, and the listed types include plumbing, residential and multi-residential, commercial and industrial, institutional, modular and mobile homes, retaining walls and demolition.
The city's building bylaw is Building Bylaw 3899, 2023. Its Subdivision and Development Servicing Bylaw 3419, 2010 and Zoning Bylaw 3250, 2006 are also named on the city's permit page. Inspections are booked through the city's eInspections service once you have a permit number and a five-digit access code.
Which repairs need a filing?
A broken distribution box lid needs none. Replacing the whole field does.
The dividing line is whether the repair changes the system or simply restores it. A broken lid, a failed pump, a float switch, a filter or ten feet of crushed line all restore it, and none of them needs a new filing.
Replacing the distribution field, replacing the septic tank, or changing from gravity distribution to pressure distribution all change it, and all three do need one. Either way the work must be performed by an Authorized Person or under the supervision of one — that part does not vary with the size of the job.
What counts as an offence
Grey water is sewage once it leaves the building, and putting it on the surface is illegal.
It is an offence to construct or repair a sewerage system without proper qualification, or without first submitting the filing documents. It is also an offence to discharge sewage onto the ground surface, into a body of water, or into a source of drinking water.
Grey water counts. Using it in the garden needs an Authorized Person's designed system with a filing, applied below ground, and restricted to non-food crops. Discharging grey water to the ground surface is illegal.
Where the two rules get confused
We make the Island Health filing in all four electoral areas and inside the city, either way.
What does a job like this look like?
The situation
An owner in an electoral area with no building bylaw is told by a neighbour that no permit means no paperwork at all.
What makes it harder
Half of that is right. The building permit genuinely does not apply there, and the septic filing genuinely still does.
What we do
We separate the two on the first call. The filing is provincial and lands the same way in all four electoral areas, and we make it for you either way.
How we handle your filing
The filing is included in the system design fee. It is not a separate line on your invoice.
- 1
Assessment — we log the soil and confirm what your parcel will take.
- 2
Design and file — we design the system and submit the filing package to Island Health before construction.
- 3
Build — we construct the system as filed, and you get the building permit where one applies.
- 4
Certify — within 30 days we submit the signed letter, and only then can the system be used.
For pricing, see the price ranges we publish. Out in the electoral areas we work on parcels on Quadra Island and parcels at Oyster River.
We file septic paperwork for properties in Campbell River, Willow Point, Campbellton, Quadra Island and Oyster River, across the Strathcona Regional District.
Tell us where your property sits and what you are building, and we'll come out and give you a free quote.