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Septic Registry

Installer or pumper? Georgia's two certifications explained

Two rosters, two exams, two sets of fees. Roughly one company in five holds both — which means four in five will tell you to call somebody else.

The short version

  • A certified installer puts a system in the ground: new installations, repairs, replacements, drain fields. Georgia lists 1,933 of them.
  • An approved pumper empties the tank and hauls the septage away. Georgia lists 548.
  • 412 companies hold both certifications and appear on both rosters. On this site they are one company page, marked for both roles.

Why the state treats them separately

The two jobs are tested separately. Georgia’s certification exams cover different sections of the DPH onsite sewage manual — installers are examined on the installation sections, septic tank pumpers on the septage section, and portable sanitation pumpers against a separate rule. A pass is at least 70 points, and each exam costs $50.

The company-level fees are separate too, and they add up in a way that explains why most companies pick one lane: as of 2026, $400 for an installer company, $400 for a pumper company, $800 to be certified for both, and $300 for portable sanitation only.

The pumper's extra hurdle: the county septage permit

State certification is not the whole story for pumpers. A pumping company also needs a current county septage removal permit, and the sequence is fixed — Georgia states that a county cannot inspect a new company’s truck or issue a pumping permit before the state certification is obtained. So a pumper you hire has cleared two separate gates, one state and one county, and only the state one shows up on the roster.

Which one do you need?

  • Tank is full, slow drains, alarm going off, routine service due — pumper.
  • Building, adding a bedroom, replacing a failed drain field, moving a tank — installer, and a county permit.
  • Buying a house — usually both, in that order: pump so the tank can be seen, then an installer or the county for anything the inspection turns up.

Browse certified installers or approved pumpers by county, and check the neighbouring counties too — certification is statewide even though the roster is filed by business address.

Sources

Last reviewed August 2026. General information about how these licensing systems work, not legal or engineering advice. Tell us if something is out of date.