Verified as of September 16, 2026. We re-check these pages quarterly.
What the rule actually says
Effective June 27, 2025, the state's final order on the springs basin management action plans set a remediation policy for existing systems in the DeLeon, Volusia Blue and Gemini springs areas. On the need for any construction permit under the state's septic rules to repair, modify or replace an existing system, inside a priority focus area, on a lot of one acre or less, a system achieving at least 65 percent nitrogen reduction must be installed instead.
Three conditions, all of which have to be true: inside a priority focus area, lot of one acre or less, and a construction permit is needed. Miss any one of them and the rule does not apply.
The exception worth knowing about
There is one, and it is written into the rule. If the permit applicant can document that a sewer connection to the property is planned and funded, and that the structures on the lot will be connected, the nitrogen-reducing system is not required. "Planned and funded" is a higher bar than "the city has talked about it" — it means a project that exists on paper with money attached. If anyone has told you sewer is coming, get that in writing before you buy equipment.
What is not covered
There is no requirement to replace a working conventional system. The rule attaches to the permit, not to the calendar. There is also no requirement on lots greater than an acre inside the priority focus areas, and none at all elsewhere inside the wider basin boundaries. A great many Volusia properties sit inside a basin but outside a priority focus area, and for those the rule genuinely does not bite.
A worked example
A 1980s house in DeLand on a 0.3-acre lot. The drain field has been surfacing after rain for two seasons and a contractor quotes a replacement field at $9,000 — comfortably inside the $5,000–$15,000 band for this county.
The lot is inside the Volusia Blue priority focus area and it is under an acre, so the replacement needs a construction permit and the permit requires nitrogen reduction. The $9,000 field cannot be permitted. What can be permitted is an aerobic treatment unit at $10,000–$20,000 installed, or an in-ground nitrogen-reducing biofilter, plus the county permit fees on top. Say the unit is quoted at $17,000. DeLand is not inside the DeLeon Springs priority focus area, so the county grant does not reach it, and the whole $17,000 is the owner's.
The lesson is not that the rule is unfair. It is that the cheapest moment to find out you are inside a priority focus area is years before the field fails, when pumping on schedule is still capable of changing the outcome.
What to do about it
- Check the address against the state's requirements map, and check your lot size on the property appraiser's record — an acre is the hinge and people misremember their own lot.
- If you are inside and under an acre, ask whether a funded sewer connection exists for the property.
- Get the system inspected before it fails rather than after. An inspection at $175–$550 is the cheapest way to buy time.
- If an upgrade is coming, find out whether your address falls inside the DeLeon Springs grant area before anyone quotes you.
Verified as of September 16, 2026. We re-check these pages quarterly. This requirement took its current form with the final order of June 27, 2025; before that, the springs plans set a longer horizon of no later than twenty years after the basin plan was adopted. Rules and boundaries both change — confirm current availability before counting on a number.
All work is performed by local licensed, permitted Florida-registered septic tank contractors.