Lehigh County · Pop. 125,845
Allentown is the third-largest city in Pennsylvania and the hub of the Lehigh Valley, a metropolitan area of nearly 800,000 people in the Great Appalachian Valley limestone belt. The city proper and its immediate suburbs are served by municipal sewer, but the outlying Lehigh County townships — where farms and residential development mix in the rolling limestone landscape — rely extensively on private septic systems. The Lehigh Valley's karst limestone geology defines septic system challenges here: the same dissolved limestone that created the fertile valley soils also produced an underground network of sinkholes, solution channels, and fractures that can conduct septic effluent directly to the Lehigh Valley's critical limestone aquifer. Pennsylvania DEP and the Lehigh County Health Bureau have both invested heavily in karst mapping and sinkhole-setback regulation to protect the regional groundwater supply that serves hundreds of thousands of valley residents.
Restore or replace failed leach fields and drain lines to prevent sewage surfacing and groundwater contamination.
$2,000 – $15,000
Commercial grease trap cleaning and pumping to prevent sewer blockages and maintain health code compliance.
$200 – $800
Comprehensive evaluation of your septic system's condition, required for real estate transactions in most states.
$300 – $600
Complete new septic system design and installation, from perc testing to final inspection.
$3,500 – $20,000
Regular pumping removes accumulated solids from your septic tank, preventing backups and extending system life.
$275 – $600
Diagnose and fix septic system problems including leaks, clogs, baffle failures, and component replacements.
$500 – $5,000
Professional water well drilling for residential and commercial properties without access to municipal water.
$6,000 – $25,000
Diagnose and repair well pump failures, pressure tank issues, and water flow problems.
$300 – $3,000
Pittsburgh, PA 00000
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Allentown, PA 00000
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Pittsburgh, PA 00000
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Allentown, PA 00000
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Pittsburgh, PA 00000
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Harrisburg, PA 00000
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| Service | Average Cost |
|---|---|
| Septic Tank Pumping | $275 - $450 |
| Septic System Installation | $6,000 - $16,000 |
Lehigh County sits in the Great Appalachian Valley (Lehigh Valley), a broad limestone belt between the Blue Ridge/South Mountain to the south and the Kittatinny Ridge to the north. The dominant septic-relevant soil in the Lehigh Valley lowlands is the Duffield-Hagerstown-Murrill association — deep, well-drained silt loams developed from weathered limestone with percolation rates of 30 to 60 minutes per inch in the subsoil. Karst features — sinkholes, solution conduits, and pinnacled bedrock — interrupt the otherwise favorable soil profile and create unpredictable vertical permeability. The Blue Mountain foothills north of Allentown have Laidig and Dekalb channery soils with moderate to rapid percolation but shallower effective depth.
The Hagerstown and Duffield silt loam soils that dominate the Lehigh Valley lowlands are textbook limestone residuum — deep, red-brown to yellowish-brown silty soils with moderate structure and generally acceptable percolation for septic use (30-60 min/inch in the B horizon). The complication is their karst foundation. Where limestone dissolution has advanced, the soil profile may thin abruptly over pinnacled bedrock or plunge into a sinkhole feature with no natural soil at all. Percolation tests in a mapped Hagerstown area can show 45 min/inch at the test pit location but have nearby sinkholes that provide direct conduits to the aquifer regardless of the percolation rate. NRCS soil surveys identify the Hagerstown-Duffield association mapping units and flag karst-associated phases, which soil evaluators must account for in their site assessments.
Pennsylvania Act 537 and DEP Chapter 73 govern Lehigh County septic systems, administered locally by the Lehigh County Health Bureau. The Bureau has adopted enhanced procedures for karst terrain areas, requiring soil evaluators to document karst features encountered during site evaluations. Properties in mapped sinkhole-density zones require a karst feature survey before the permit application is complete. Setbacks are 100 feet from water supply wells, 50 feet from watercourses, and 10 feet from property lines. Special enhanced setbacks apply to properties near Little Lehigh Creek and Cedar Creek, which are surface-water sources for Allentown's municipal supply. PA DEP's Water Resources Program monitors the Little Lehigh Creek watershed for nitrate levels, and elevated readings have been linked to septic sources in outlying Lehigh County.
Lehigh County septic permits are issued by the Lehigh County Health Bureau, which serves as the local SEO authority under Pennsylvania Act 537 and Chapter 73. Allentown itself is served by the city's municipal sewer system (the Allentown Water and Sewer Authority), so septic systems are primarily found in outlying Lehigh County townships — Upper Saucon, Heidelberg, Lynn, and others. A DEP-certified soil evaluator must conduct a site assessment. Permit fees run $175 to $400. The Health Bureau requires karst feature surveys in mapped sinkhole-prone areas before permits are issued. Sites within 1,000 feet of the Little Lehigh or Cedar Creek watersheds receive additional scrutiny due to their use as municipal water sources.