The licence that allows pumping
OAR 340-071-0600 requires a DEQ Sewage Disposal Service (SDS) licence to construct, install, alter, repair, maintain or pump an onsite system as a business in Oregon. DEQ issues it in three flavours, and the distinction is the whole point of this page:
- SDS – Installer License — builds and repairs systems. Not licensed to pump your tank.
- SDS – Pumper License — licensed to pump.
- SDS – Installer/Pumper License — licensed to do both.
Installer licences are much the more common of the three, so “we're DEQ-licensed” is not by itself an answer to “are you licensed to pump?” Only the last two types appear in this directory, and each card says which one the business holds.
Oregon publishes an expiry date — use it
Most states here publish a licence number and nothing about when it lapses. Oregon publishes the expiry date for every licence, and every card in this directory shows it. That means you can check a licence is current before you book rather than trusting a number that may be years stale.
Verification steps
- Ask for the business name and its DEQ licence number.
- Open the DEQ Sewage Disposal Service licence search and look the business up by name, licence number or county.
- Confirm the licence type is Pumper or Installer/Pumper, not Installer.
- Confirm the status is Issued and the expiry date has not passed.
- Confirm the business pumps household tanks at your address, then get a written quote.
DEQ is explicit about the negative case: if you cannot find a licence and you have checked your spelling, that business does not have a currently issued licence.
Reading the county
DEQ publishes the licensee's business address but no county, so the county on a card is derived: each city and ZIP is matched to a county using Census place and county data. It is a business location, not a service area — an Oregon SDS licence is a state licence, so a business one county over may well cover your address.
13 businesses sit on a ZIP that spans a county line. Where the ZIP does not settle which county the address is in, the listing appears on every possible county page and the card says so rather than picking one silently.
23 businesses hold a current Oregon pumper licence from an address in another state — mostly across the Washington and Idaho borders. They are fully licensed for Oregon work, but they have no Oregon county to be filed under, so they are counted here and left off the county pages rather than assigned somewhere invented. One of them is filed by DEQ as an Oregon address whose ZIP is actually in Washington.
What we publish
194 businesses across 32 of Oregon's 36 counties, drawn from the 217 currently issued pumping licences among DEQ's 4,810 Sewage Disposal Service licence records. Nothing is filtered out by name: this licence is Oregon's septic pumping credential. Because plumbing, excavation and portable-restroom firms hold it too, the 123 businesses whose name does not say septic carry a note asking you to confirm household work first. That note is not a suggestion the firm does no septic work.
Start with the Oregon county directory, then check the licence number, type and expiry date on DEQ's own search.