Alcovy Septic gets asked a version of the same question every autumn: is there anything a Gwinnett septic owner is supposed to do on a schedule, other than pump the tank? There is no annual county inspection and no renewal to miss. But there are three things worth a calendar note — one that pays you money, one national awareness week with genuinely useful material, and one records system most owners never learn exists.
The stormwater fee credit — the one that pays you back
Gwinnett County charges every developed property a stormwater utility fee, and it grants credits against that fee for practices that reduce runoff and protect water quality. Pumping your septic tank is one of them.
The terms, from the county’s utility fee credits page: a dated pumping receipt from a licensed hauler earns a 10% credit for five years, and the total credit across all qualifying practices is capped at 40% of the fee.
The practical points:
- The receipt is the application. It has to be dated and from a licensed hauler. A handwritten note or a card charge with no detail will not carry it.
- Five years is roughly the pumping interval anyway. The credit resets when you pump again and submit the new receipt, so if you are on a three-to-five-year cycle you can keep it running indefinitely.
- Apply after the visit, not years later. Put it on the calendar for the week after your pump-out while the receipt is on the counter.
This is the closest thing to free money in septic ownership and most Gwinnett owners never claim it. The stormwater credit guide covers the application step by step, and the receipt from any pump-out is written in the right format.
SepticSmart Week — 14–18 September 2026
The EPA runs SepticSmart Week every September. The 2026 dates are 14–18 September. It is an awareness campaign rather than an event you attend, and there is no Gwinnett-specific programming attached to it, so treat it as an annual prompt rather than an appointment.
What makes it worth the calendar entry is the timing and the material. Mid-September is a sensible annual checkpoint: summer’s heavy water use is behind you, the autumn rains have not started, and the ground is usually dry enough to walk the drain field and dig a lid if one needs digging. The EPA’s top ten homeowner tips is the single best one-page summary of septic maintenance published by anyone, and their standing guidance — inspect regularly, pump every three to five years for a typical household — is the benchmark most county advice is built on.
A reasonable annual routine for that week: check when you last pumped, walk the drain field looking for soft ground or unusually green stripes, confirm nothing is parked on the trenches, and confirm you know where your lids are. If you cannot answer the first question, see how often to pump a septic tank in Georgia and signs your tank needs pumping.
Where county septic records live
Not a date, but the thing most owners wish they had known earlier. Gwinnett County holds septic records back to 1959, and they have been free to search online since 2011 through the county’s GIS Data Browser — you turn on the “Septic Tank Parcels” layer and pull the scanned plat for your address. The county publishes a quick start guide for it.
The plat typically shows tank location, tank size and the drain field layout as permitted. That is worth real money: knowing where the lid is can remove a $50 to $150 digging charge from your next visit, and knowing your tank size tells you which pumping interval actually applies to you. It is also the first thing to pull if you are selling the house or planning a repair permit.
Pull it once, save the PDF, and you never have to hunt for it again. Our Gwinnett County septic records guide walks through the lookup, including what to do when the layer returns nothing for your parcel — common on older Lilburn properties where the system predates reliable recordkeeping.
Putting it together
Three entries, once a year: check the system in mid-September around SepticSmart Week, apply for the stormwater credit the week after any pump-out, and pull your septic plat once and file it. Together that is well under an afternoon, and it covers the paperwork side of septic ownership in Gwinnett almost completely. If you want the tank itself looked at, get in touch.