There is no statewide licence
Most states on this site license septic pumpers once, centrally. California does not. Health and Safety Code 117405 makes it unlawful for anyone to carry on the business of cleaning septic tanks, chemical toilets, cesspools or seepage pits unless they hold an unrevoked registration issued by the local health officer of that city or county. So there are 58 registers, not one, and a company registered in the next county over is not thereby registered in yours.
This changes what a county page means here. Everywhere else on this site a county is where a business is based, and we say plainly that it is not a service area. In California the county is the permission: every business on a county page holds that county's permit to pump there, and several of them are based well outside it.
Verification steps
- Ask which county registration the business holds, and for the county your property is in.
- Call your county environmental health department and ask whether that business holds a current liquid waste or septic pumper registration.
- Ask whether the registration covers septic tanks. The same registration often covers chemical toilets and grease, and not every registrant pumps household tanks.
- Confirm the truck itself is registered — most counties register vehicles, not just firms.
- Confirm the business serves your address, then get a written quote.
What we publish, and what we do not
40 businesses from 2 county registers, out of 58 counties. The counties without a page are a gap in our sourcing, not a finding about the county — every California county registers pumpers under 117405, and a missing page never means no one is registered there.
Where the registers differ, so do the pages:
- Santa Cruz County — County of Santa Cruz Health Services Agency — Environmental Health. Publishes which service each permit covers, so only the 17 companies marked for septic are listed, out of 33 permitted. Register dated 2024-12-09.
- Nevada County — Nevada County Environmental Health. Registers septic tanks and chemical toilets together and does not publish which a business does, so all 23 registrants are listed and each card says so. The county stamps no revision date, so the snapshot is dated by retrieval.
11 of the businesses published have no phone number in their county's register. Their cards carry the email and address the county publishes and no Call button; no number has been guessed.
Start with the California county directory, then confirm the registration with the county itself.