Act 537 Sewage Facilities Program

The Act 537 Sewage Facilities Program of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) carries out the Pennsylvania Sewage Facilities Act, Act 537. DEP says its purpose is to help address existing sewage disposal needs, and to help prevent future problems through the proper planning, permitting and design of sewage facilities of all types. It sits in DEP's wastewater management program, which the Bureau of Clean Water administers. Septic systems, which DEP calls on-lot or onsite sewage treatment systems, are administered mostly at the local level, by municipalities or groups of them, county health departments among them. DEP calls these local agencies and joint local agencies, and gives them technical oversight and financial assistance.

In a Phase I ESA

ASTM E1527-21 does not name septic system records among its standard record sources. An on-lot system receives whatever was sent down a property's sewage plumbing, so at a commercial or industrial property its permit and repair history is worth asking for. That is advice for the search, not something DEP says. DEP itself says that a malfunctioning or improperly functioning sewage disposal system of any type can pose a serious threat to public health and the environment.

• The permit file is local. DEP says local agencies are responsible for on-lot permitting and enforcement, and with certain exceptions (DEP names large volume on-lot systems), issue the permits for retaining tanks and for individual and community on-lot systems that renovate sewage effluent in a soil absorption area or spray field. They employ Sewage Enforcement Officers (SEOs) to do it. For a septic system, ask the local agency; for a large volume on-lot system, the pages read do not say who holds the permit.
• Find the agency first. Some municipalities pool their work in a joint local agency, which DEP says may also be called a multi-municipal local agency or a sewage committee. DEP's statewide map shows the current type of on-lot sewage service for each municipality, as updated July 12, 2023, and its six regional maps carry a table naming the joint agency for each member municipality. DEP says a municipality with no joint agency name in the table is not part of one.
• Ask for the site test. DEP's page for SEOs links its form for a site investigation and percolation test report for on-lot sewage disposal. Ask the local agency for that report along with the permit.
• Four agencies may also review planning. DEP names four delegated joint local agencies that may be authorized to approve or disapprove new land development planning proposals: Armstrong County Sewage Enforcement Agency, City of Philadelphia, Indiana County Sewage Enforcement Agency and Lebanon County Planning Department.
• Treatment plants and discharges are DEP's. DEP issues Water Quality Management permits for building sewage and industrial waste treatment facilities and for land application of wastewater, and NPDES permits for point source discharges from sewage, industrial waste and municipal and industrial stormwater facilities. Ask DEP, not the local agency, for those files.

The regulations DEP lists are 25 Pa. Code Chapter 71, Administration of Sewage Facilities Planning Program, and Chapter 73, Standards for Onlot Sewage Treatment Facilities.

Where to look a site up

• DEP's Municipal On-Lot Sewage Service Areas page, with the statewide map and the six regional maps and tables. It invites municipalities to send corrections to DEP's Division of Municipal Facilities, whose phone it gives as 717-787-5017.
• Active SEOs by County, linked from DEP's Sewage Enforcement Officers (SEO) page.
• DEP's Act 537 Sewage Facilities Program page links an Official Plan Status Map, which DEP says depicts the relative age of Act 537 Official Plans across the Commonwealth.

Getting the file

The pages read do not say how a local agency's on-lot permit files are requested; ask the local agency or its SEO. DEP's sewage and water pollution programs are in all of its regional offices. For DEP's own files, DEP recommends its Environmental Site Assessment Search Tool or an Informal File Review, requested on a form and scheduled with the regional office, before a request under the Right-to-Know Law. The file review and the Right-to-Know request are on the Informal File Review and Right-to-Know requests page.

Sources

Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection pages, read October 15, 2026, no modified date shown:

• Act 537 Sewage Facilities Program
• On-lot Disposal System
• Municipal On Lot Sewage Service Areas, map updated July 12, 2023.
• Sewage Enforcement Officers (SEO)
• Wastewater Management
• Clean Water

Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection pages, read October 1, 2026, no modified date shown:

• Field Programs List
• Informal File Review