Michigan has no statewide septic code: what exists and what Senate Bill 771 would change

What exists in Michigan today

As of Oct 19, 2026 Michigan has no enacted statewide septic code. Under the Public Health Code, onsite wastewater management is a required service for local health departments. The state contracts with them each year, and EGLE’s Onsite Wastewater Management Unit offers them assistance and training, but the permit for an ordinary home system comes from the county or district health department, not from EGLE. Michigan has 45 local health departments, and 44 of them run an onsite wastewater program.

What those departments apply is their own sanitary code or the Michigan Criteria for Subsurface Sewage Disposal, whichever is more stringent, in EGLE’s words. The Criteria are an April 1994 revision of a state policy document. They describe themselves as minimum uniform standards and say nothing prevents a local health department from adopting more stringent requirements. EGLE also lists a draft of newer criteria, with a 2013 file date and a 2025 edit, on its onsite wastewater page. It is a draft and not in force.

The legal basis for county codes is section 2441 of the Public Health Code. A local health department may adopt regulations that take effect 45 days after the governing body approves them, must be at least as stringent as state law on the subject, and supersede inconsistent or conflicting local ordinances. That is how Oakland has Article III of a sanitary code, Ottawa an environmental health code, and Genesee a separate set of construction standards. It is also why the same tank can be inspected at sale in one county and left alone in the next. The county rules tool shows what we have on file for each.

What legislators and EGLE say about the gap

Testimony recorded in the Senate Fiscal Agency’s analysis of Senate Bill 771 says Michigan is the only state without a uniform standard for onsite wastewater treatment systems. That is testimony reported by the agency, not EGLE’s own statement, and we cite it as such. EGLE’s page lists a webinar called “The case for a statewide septic code in Michigan” among its related resources, and we did not watch it.

EGLE says more than 1.3 million septic systems treat household wastewater in Michigan and, “by some estimates”, more than 20 percent are failing. Those are estimates attributed to others, and a Public Sector Consultants range of 130,000 to 325,000 failing systems works out to 10 to 25 percent of the total. Local health departments reported 4,332 failed residential systems and 14,742 residential permits for 2023, with data missing for 17 of 83 counties. Those are counts of failures the departments evaluated, not an estimate of every failing system.

What Senate Bill 771 of 2026 would do

Senate Bill 771, sponsored by Sen. Sam Singh, would add Part 128 (Onsite Wastewater Treatment Systems) to the Public Health Code. These terms come from the Senate Fiscal Agency’s analysis of the substitute, not from the bill text, and an enacted version could differ.

Provision	What the analysis says
Statewide code	EGLE would write rules for a Statewide Sewage Code within three years of the effective date.
Permits	A construction permit would be required to install, alter, repair or replace a system.
Evaluations	Covered systems would be evaluated every 10 years once rules exist, on a phased schedule for 20-year-old and 30-year-old systems.
Evaluators	Evaluators would register with EGLE, with a $180 application fee.
Treatment products	Proprietary products would be registered with EGLE, with a $3,000 review fee, before installation.
Pumping	An owner could not pump within 45 days before an evaluation, and where an evaluation shows pumping is needed, a Part 117 licensed business would pump within 60 days.
Penalties	Civil fines of up to $15,000.
Point of sale	Local point-of-sale ordinances would have to be consistent with or stricter than Part 128.
Timing	The act would take effect 90 days after enactment, but evaluations would not start until EGLE’s rules exist.

The bill contains no installer license. EGLE’s fiscal estimate in the analysis is a one-time $12.8 million for a statewide database and IT system, $1.0 million for outreach, and about $11.4 million a year ongoing for 24 staff positions.

Where the bill stands, and where earlier bills ended

Senate Bill 771 was introduced Jan 28, 2026. It was reported favorably with substitute S-2 on June 3, 2026 and placed on the order of third reading on June 17, 2026. The bill page showed no later action when we checked it on Oct 19, 2026. House Bill 6066, with the same title, was introduced June 9, 2026 and referred to the House Committee on Government Operations, with no later action shown either. We make no forecast about either bill.

Similar bills have stalled before. Senate Bills 299 and 300 of 2023 passed the Senate on Dec 12, 2024, by 20 votes to 15, and were referred to the House Committee on Government Operations, where the analysis says they received no further action. Their House companions, HB 4479 and HB 4480, were reported with substitutes and sent to second reading the same day, with no further action shown. House Bill 6173 of 2024, which would have revised the seller disclosure statement to reflect a septic inspection, had notice given to discharge the committee on Dec 11, 2024, and nothing after.

What this means for a homeowner now

Nothing in these bills changes what you must do today. Your county health department decides if a sale triggers an evaluation, if a repair needs a permit, and if installers or evaluators must register. At the state level the only license we found is for haulers: pumpers need EGLE septage waste servicing and vehicle licenses under Part 117. No source we can cite licenses installers or inspectors statewide. See septic inspection at sale for the county programs and the installation page for how a permit works. If the bill becomes law we will update these pages and say when.