Septic Engineer in Union Springs, NY

Union Springs in two sentences

The Village of Union Springs owns a wastewater plant on Chapel Street that treats sewage from the village and portions of the Town of Springport and discharges treated flow to Cayuga Lake. The rest of Springport, the lake roads north and south of the village and the farm country rising east of the lake, is on septic, reviewed by the Cayuga County Health Department.

Designs are prepared and stamped by a New York licensed Professional Engineer (PE). Backwell coordinates the design, the county submittal, and the install.

Sewer on the east shore is not coming soon

Cayuga County Water and Sewer Authority had been working on a Cayuga Lake Protection Plan sewer project along the shore. In July 2026 its board ordered staff to halt work and spending on that project after voters rejected the plan. For lake owners south of the village, that means septic stays the plan for the foreseeable future, and a failing system gets replaced, not hooked up.

Soil, rock and springs

The village name comes from the springs, and the springs come from the limestone under the shore. Upland lots east of the village carry Ovid silt loam, which the USDA describes as very deep and somewhat poorly drained, formed in moderately fine textured reddish till, and Lansing silt loam, very deep and well drained. The lakefront flats are Canandaigua silty clay loam, poorly drained. Honeoye silt loam caps the drumlins and Palmyra gravelly loam shows up on outwash benches near the gullies.

Put that together and you get three typical answers. Well drained Lansing or Honeoye ground with four feet of usable soil can take a conventional trench field. Ovid ground, with water perched high in spring, usually ends up in a shallow trench system or a raised system. Where limestone is inside two feet, the design moves to a raised system or a mound, and a mound requires bedrock at least two feet below the natural surface under Appendix 75-A. Creviced rock is one of the conditions the state code says a mound's sand fill is meant to handle.

How it works for a Springport lot

1. Send the property. Address, bedrooms, lake frontage or not. Estimate in 1 hour.
2. Perc and deep hole. Two perc tests minimum and a six foot test hole. The hole is the key on this shore, because it shows where the rock and the spring water are.
3. Stamped design. The PE draws the system with the 100 foot setback to the lake and to Great Gully, Big Salmon Creek or any other stream on or near the lot.
4. Cayuga County review. Plans, application and $150 fee to the Environmental Health Division, 8 Dill Street, Auburn. County staff check for wetlands, watercourses and wells.
5. Town permit. The county notifies the Code Enforcement Officer once the plan is accepted.
6. Install and certify. PE verification before backfill, certificate of construction letters, then occupancy.

What the county checks on lake lots

• Absorption field 100 feet from the mean high water mark of the lake, and 100 feet from any well, per Appendix 75-A Table 2.
• Where the system sits uphill and in the direct path of drainage to a well, 200 feet to that well.
• Septic tank 50 feet from the lake and from wells, 10 feet from the house.
• A reserve area of 50 percent more usable land wherever the lot allows it.
• Seasonal high groundwater recorded, including whether the water table is perched, apparent or artesian.

Union Springs problems and fixes

Timeline

Testing and design first, then up to 4 to 6 weeks for county approval to construct, per the county application. An accepted repair plan expires two years after acceptance on the county form.

Sources

• NYS DOH, 10 NYCRR Appendix 75-A, Wastewater Treatment Standards, Residential Onsite Systems
• Cayuga County Health Department, Septic System Installation and Inspection
• Cayuga County Health Department, Instructions to Obtain Septic System Plan Approval for New Construction
• Cayuga County Health Department, Application to Install a New Septic System (rev. 1/7/2025)
• Cayuga County Health Department, Application to Modify/Replace an Existing Septic System (rev. 1/7/2025)
• NYSDEC Environmental Notice Bulletin, Town of Springport, Union Springs Village STP (2025)
• Spectrum News, Referendum halts work on Cayuga Lake sewer project (July 2026)
• USDA NRCS Official Soil Series Description, Ovid
• USDA NRCS Official Soil Series Description, Lansing
• USDA NRCS Official Soil Series Description, Canandaigua
• USDA NRCS Official Soil Series Description, Honeoye

Rules and fees as published by each office on the date this page was written. They can change; the design is checked against the current versions at submittal.