How to Verify a Michigan Septage Hauler Licence

Michigan requires two licences, not one

MCL 324.11702, part of Part 117 of the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act, says a person may not engage in septage servicing except as authorised by both a septage waste servicing licence and a septage waste vehicle licence issued by EGLE. It also makes it unlawful to hire someone who lacks them. A business licence on its own is not enough, which is why every card in this directory shows how many sealed tank vehicles EGLE has licensed to that business.

EGLE does not issue either licence alone. Under MCL 324.11706 the certified city, county or district health department inspects the sites, the servicing methods and the vehicles first, and EGLE issues the licence only if that inspection passes. Which office that is depends on the licensee, not only on the county the licence is filed under.

The check you can make in your own driveway

Michigan puts the credential on the truck. MCL 324.11707 requires every licensed septage waste vehicle to display, on both sides, in letters not less than two inches high:

the words “licensed septage hauler”;
the vehicle licence number EGLE issued; and
a seal furnished by EGLE showing the year that vehicle licence was issued.

Check the seal year as well as the number, but do not assume an older seal means the truck is unlicensed: EGLE says vehicle seals remain in effect for five years when annual fees are current. Use the seal and licence number to check the vehicle's expiration date and current status; ask the hauler or EGLE about a missing seal or markings that do not match the directory.

Verification steps

Ask for the business name and its EGLE septage licence number (they read SH-1234).
Open the EGLE Septage Hauler Directory and search the business name.
Match the licence number, county and phone, and check the vehicle list behind it.
Check the directory's own refresh stamp against ours, which reads September 4, 2026.
When the truck arrives, read both sides of it against MCL 324.11707.

What the directory does not say

It does not publish a business licence expiration date, so a licence number tells you the business was licensed at the refresh stamp, not that it still is. Michigan septage licences run on a five-year cycle, but the business must also pay fees every year to keep them in force, so a licence can lapse well inside its cycle. EGLE's own Septage Waste Program FAQs set out how that works.

Reading the county

The county on a card is where EGLE files the licence, tied to the certified health department that oversees the business. It is not a service area and not a limit: an EGLE licence authorises cleaning, removing, transporting and disposing of septage anywhere in Michigan. A firm filed in the next county over may well serve your address — ask.

23 licensees have a business address outside Michigan and are filed under a Michigan county they work into, mostly across the Indiana, Ohio and Wisconsin borders. They are fully licensed for Michigan work, and their cards say where they are based.

What we publish

All 364 licensed septage waste servicing businesses in the directory, across 79 of Michigan's 83 counties, together holding 1241 licensed vehicles. Nothing is filtered out by name: this licence is Michigan's septic pumping credential. Because portable-restroom, excavating and drain firms hold it too, the 169 businesses whose name does not say septic or septage carry a note asking you to confirm household work first. That note is not a suggestion the firm does no septic work.