Oregon Septic Permits by County

Sourced from Oregon DEQ’s Onsite Septic Staff and County Agent Contact Information page (retrieved August 15, 2026), OAR chapter 340 divisions 071 and 073 as amended effective January 1, 2026, ORS 454.755 and ORS 468B — last checked August 2026.

Your county may not issue septic permits at all

Most states divide septic authority county by county, so the county website is the right starting point. Oregon does not work that way.

DEQ writes one statewide technical code and then contracts the work out. It permits directly in Curry, Jackson and Josephine — three counties, all run out of the DEQ Medford office. The other 33 are contract counties, acting as DEQ’s agents under an agreement made under OAR 340-071-0120.

But a contract county does not have to run the counter itself. Fourteen counties are administered from a shared office covering several counties, and nothing on those counties’ own websites says so. A homeowner in Enterprise who searches for the Wallowa County septic permit finds the county government, which does not do septic, and is not told where to go instead.

One planning counter in Burns issues permits for six counties

The Harney County Planning Department, at 450 N. Buena Vista in Burns, administers septic permitting for Baker, Grant, Harney, Union, Wallowa and Wheeler counties. That is one office, in a town of roughly 2,700 people, covering something close to a quarter of Oregon’s land area.

The distances are our own rough estimates, included to show the scale of the area one office covers. They are not from DEQ and should not be relied on for travel planning.

Harney County Planning Department — 450 N. Buena Vista, Burns, OR 97720 · 541-573-2761.

One correction worth knowing: DEQ’s own contact table prints the Burns ZIP code as “9772” on the Baker, Union and Wallowa rows, and correctly as 97720 on the Grant, Harney and Wheeler rows. Use 97720.

The other three shared offices

Multnomah is two hops from the state. DEQ contracts to Multnomah County, and Multnomah County contracts onward to Portland Permitting & Development, which administers the rules for the whole county — including properties outside Portland city limits. If you are in Multnomah County, the city is your septic authority whether or not you live in the city.

Every Oregon county and who issues its permits

The office listed is the one DEQ names as the permitting contact. Where it is not your own county’s department, the row is marked.

† Administered by an office that is not a department of this county’s own government. ‡ Permitted directly by DEQ.

DEQ’s table shows 35 rows for 36 counties because Grant and Harney share a single row. We have split them here.

Wasco is the judgment call. We have marked it, because North Central Public Health is a multi-county health district rather than a Wasco County department — but it is headquartered in Wasco County and a reasonable person could count it either way. This is precisely why we give you the office rather than a headline count.

Look up your county

Enter your county below to get the office that issues your permit, its address and phone number, and whether it is your own county or a shared office.

What the shared office does not change

The rules are identical statewide

This is the part Oregon homeowners most often get wrong. Contract counties do not write their own septic codes. The technical standards live in OAR chapter 340, divisions 071 and 073, and they apply the same way in Wallowa as in Multnomah. There is no Oregon equivalent of the “a county may be stricter but never more lenient” rule that some other states have — ORS 454.640 limits a contract agent to enforcing state standards.

What does vary per site is the agent’s judgment, and that comes with a duty attached. Under OAR 340-071-0130(1), if the agent decides the minimum standards will not adequately protect public health or public waters on your particular site, they must require something more protective — and they must give you a written statement of the specific reasons why. That written statement is a real entitlement and almost nobody asks for it.

The fees are not identical — and they are not close

Every contract county sets its own fee schedule under OAR 340-071-0140(9)(a). A shared office does not mean a shared price list, and you should never carry a fee figure from one county to a neighbor. On the schedules we have been able to date, the permit for an identical standard system runs from about $1,084 at North Central Public Health to $3,126 in Multnomah — roughly 2.9 times.

One constraint does apply everywhere: OAR 340-071-0140(9)(c) says fees “may not exceed actual costs for efficiently conducted services.” The word efficiently is doing real work in that sentence.

Two things that are true in all 36 counties

Oregon has no point-of-sale septic inspection requirement. We searched divisions 071 and 073 in full for “time of transfer”, “point of sale”, “transfer of property” and “real estate”. No such requirement exists anywhere in either division.

A paid site evaluation buys you more than one visit. Under ORS 454.755(2), the site evaluation fee entitles you to “as many site inspections as is necessary within 90 days” from the first one. If your evaluation fails, you have a paid-for right to re-inspection inside that window.

Talk to someone about your permit

If you would rather have a licensed local installer walk you through what your county will require, we can put you in touch. There is no cost to you.