Septic Permits, Soils and Flooding in Florence County

This page covers the local side of septic ownership: who handles permits for Florence and Darlington counties, the soils between the Great Pee Dee and the Lynches, and what the floods of 2015, 2016 and 2018 mean for a drain field. Florence SC Septic Pros is a referral service operated by Recover Profits Now. We do not pump, inspect or install systems. Call (843) 960-3805 to reach an independent local provider. Office details come from public listings, so confirm them before you go.

Sewer or septic: who serves your address

Inside the City of Florence, homes are generally on city sewer. It runs to the Florence Water Reclamation Facility, and the Utilities Department is at 1440 McCurdy Road, (843) 665-3236. Lake City, Pamplico, Johnsonville, Coward, Olanta and Scranton run their own public water or wastewater systems, and Darlington has its own. Past those lines, around Timmonsville, Quinby, Effingham, Mars Bluff and the farm roads of both counties, septic is the norm. If your lot borders the City of Florence, the Planning Department, (843) 665-2047, can tell you whether annexation and sewer are possible. The city says annexation averages about three months.

Where septic permits come from

South Carolina's septic program moved from DHEC to the new Department of Environmental Services (SCDES) on July 1, 2024. For this area, the work runs through the state's Florence office. A DHEC-era listing puts it at 145 East Cheves Street, serving Florence, Darlington, Dillon, Marion, Marlboro and Chesterfield counties. SCDES's 2025 staff chart lists its onsite wastewater team at (843) 661-4825. Call ahead to confirm the current address.

SCDES says a new home on septic needs its septic permit first. Without it, the county cannot issue a building permit. Clemson Extension's guide to the process, written under the DHEC name, lays out the usual steps:

1. Apply through the state's online e-permitting system. Include a plat or deed with the lot's dimensions and an owner permission letter.
2. Pay the fee when asked. It has historically been $150; check the current amount.
3. Clear the underbrush, stake the house footprint, and post the two site cards from the packet, sealed in plastic, at the front of the lot and at the spot you prefer for the system.
4. An evaluator reviews the landscape, slope and soil, first-come, first-served. The permit comes with a sketch of the system and a reserved repair area.
5. Your installer notifies the office the day before installation, and the system is inspected before it is covered.

A licensed Professional Soil Classifier, sometimes with a Professional Engineer, can speed things up and may be required on difficult sites. For an existing system's records, ask the Florence office or make an SCDES Freedom of Information Act request. Many older farmhouses have none.

The soils under Florence County

The USDA's 1974 soil survey of Florence and Sumter Counties maps dozens of soil series. For septic, what matters is how close the seasonal water table comes to the surface. Four common coastal plain series, per USDA descriptions:

Rains has a local tie: its reference site is about two miles northeast of Timmonsville. It forms on flats, depressions and Carolina bays, the oval wetlands preserved at Woods Bay State Park near Olanta. Lynchburg, the state soil since 1991, is too wet for a conventional septic permit, according to the state soil booklet. Norfolk and Goldsboro are classic tobacco and row-crop soils; Florence County turned to bright leaf tobacco after Frank M. Rogers began growing it in 1884. Look up your own lot on the USDA's free Web Soil Survey, but the state evaluation on the ground is what sets your permit.

Floods and what they mean for septic

Florence County had three major flood years in a row:

• October 2015. Four days of statewide rain, October 2 to 5.
• Hurricane Matthew, October 2016. Floodwaters killed two people in the county. The National Weather Service noted that the Lynches River at 15 feet floods roads near Effingham and New Hope, and that Black Creek near Quinby reaches yards on Creekside Drive, Crooked Creek Drive and East Black Creek Road at 13 feet.
• Hurricane Florence, September 2018. The state climatology office called it Florence County's third 100-year rainfall event since 2015, with record or near-record peaks at every USGS gauge in the Pee Dee basin. The Pee Dee River at Pee Dee reached 31.83 feet. The county set up evacuation zones along the river between the US 301, US 52, US 378 and SC 41/51 bridges.

If water covered your tank or drain field, follow the EPA and Clemson guidance:

• Do not pump the tank while the ground is saturated. An empty tank in waterlogged soil can float.
• Cut water use.
• Check electrical connections to any pump before restoring power.
• Test well water before drinking it.
• Have a professional inspect the system once the water is down.

See our emergency backup page if sewage is coming into the house.

Next steps

Buying, building or recovering after a storm? Call (843) 960-3805. For service details see pumping, inspections, drain field repair and new installations.