Septic services · Campbell River
Installing a New Septic System in Campbell River
Campbell River Septic installs new Type 1 and Type 2 systems across Campbell River, Willow Point, Campbellton, Quadra Island and Oyster River. We file your plans with Island Health before we build and submit the letter of certification within 30 days of finishing. A new system runs $18,000 to $45,000 or more.
A new Type 1 system with a tank and a gravity field runs $18,000 to $30,000. A Type 2 system with a treatment unit runs $25,000 to $45,000 or more.
What is the difference between Type 1 and Type 2?
Type 1 is defined by treatment level, not by gravity — a Type 1 system can use a pump.
A Type 1 system treats your sewage with a septic tank and then disperses it through a field. A Type 2 system adds a treatment unit, and its effluent has to come in under 45 mg/L suspended solids and under 45 mg/L five-day biochemical oxygen demand. The soil test tells us which one your lot will take.
Who is allowed to install your system?
An Authorized Person is either a professional or a Registered Onsite Wastewater Practitioner.
The Sewerage System Regulation requires you to retain an Authorized Person to construct, alter or repair a system. We are registered as a ROWP through the Applied Science Technologists and Technicians Association of BC, which covers Type 1 and Type 2 systems under 9,100 litres per day. A professional — usually an engineer or geoscientist — covers larger systems, up to 22,699 litres per day.
We install Type 1 and Type 2 systems only. If your flow or your site needs more than that, you need a professional, and we will say so.
Which regulation covers your system?
Under 22,700 litres per day is the Sewerage System Regulation. At or above it, the Municipal Wastewater Regulation applies.
A daily design flow under 22,700 litres per day falls under the Sewerage System Regulation. That 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 takes over instead.
What does Island Health actually approve?
Island Health does not approve the design. It receives the filing and checks the minimum criteria.
Island Health receives your filing and checks that the submission meets minimum criteria. It does not approve the design. Full responsibility for the design and its suitability sits with the Authorized Person, which on your job is us.
What we install
Type 1 system
Septic tank and dispersal field, by gravity or pumped.
Type 2 system
A treatment unit ahead of the field, for lots that need the higher effluent standard.
Sand mound and pressure-dosed systems
For lots where a conventional gravity field will not disperse the flow.
Sewage holding tank
Where no system can be installed on the parcel at all.
How we build your system
You cannot put a new system into use until the letter of certification reaches the health authority.
- 1
Site and soil assessment — we dig test pits, log the soil and confirm what your lot will take.
- 2
Design and filing — we design the system, then file the form, the plans, the specifications and the site plan with Island Health, along with any covenants, easements or hydrogeological reports that apply.
- 3
Construction — we install the tank, the field and the controls.
- 4
Certification — within 30 days we submit the signed letter, and you get the as-built diagram and your maintenance plan.
What does this mean where you are?
Where your property sits changes the building paperwork. It never changes the Island Health filing.
Where your property sits changes the paperwork around your system, but not the filing itself. Inside the city you deal with the municipal building department for the building side. In Electoral Area D you deal with the Strathcona Regional District. In Areas A, B and C there is no building bylaw at all. The Island Health filing is the same in every one of them.
What does a job like this look like?
Where the soil logs come back tight, we design a pressure-dosed system rather than a gravity field.
Septic System Installation: what the work looks like
The situation
A rural lot south of Campbell River needs a system for a new house.
What makes it harder
The soil logs come back tighter than the owner expected, so a plain gravity field will not disperse the flow.
What we do
We design a pressure-dosed system instead, file it with Island Health, and hand over the as-built diagram and the maintenance plan when the letter of certification goes in. That letter has to reach the health authority within 30 days of us finishing, and you cannot use the system until it does.
People also ask
Can I install my own septic system?
You may build it yourself, but an Authorized Person still has to design it, file the documents and supervise the construction.
How big a system can a ROWP design?
Type 1 and Type 2 systems with a daily design flow under 9,100 litres per day.
Is the Island Health filing an extra charge?
No. We include the filing in the system design fee rather than billing it separately.
When can I start using the system?
Once we have submitted the letter of certification to the health authority, and not before.
For the step before this one, see logging the soil first and putting a failed part right, or check what a system like this costs.
This work in nearby communities
Keep exploring
- Septic cost guideOur own price ranges for every kind of septic work we do.
- Site and Soil Assessment and System DesignSoil logs, a system design sized to your daily flow, and the Island Health filing that goes with it.
- Septic RepairsDrain fields, distribution boxes, pumps, floats and alarms, repaired by an Authorized Person.
- Campbell River Septic home
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