The Springs Coast compliance hub
The Citrus and Hernando Springs BMAP Septic Mandate, Explained
Regulatory content verified against primary sources as of 2026-09-26.
The short version: since December 15, 2025, a permit application to repair or modify an existing septic system, on any size lot, inside a spring Priority Focus Area in Citrus or Hernando County must include an enhanced nitrogen-reducing (ENR-OSTDS) design. The trigger is the permit application, not a property sale, and applications submitted before that date are not subject to it. Sources: Florida Department of Health in Citrus County notice, 2025-10-09; Florida Department of Health in Hernando County notice, 2025-10-10.
Why a septic rule exists here at all
Citrus and Hernando counties sit on the Springs Coast, where first-magnitude springs vent water from the Floridan Aquifer through karst limestone: Crystal River and Kings Bay, the Homosassa and Chassahowitzka group, and Weeki Wachee. The sandy soil over that limestone percolates quickly but filters little, so nitrogen from conventional septic drainfields moves into groundwater and surfaces at the spring vents. Each of these systems is designated an Outstanding Florida Spring, each is impaired for nitrogen, and each has a Basin Management Action Plan (BMAP) under Florida's springs-protection framework (Florida DEP, Springs Protection and BMAPs).
The load numbers explain the focus on septic, and DEP raised them when it replaced all three plans. Under the plans adopted in June 2025 and now in effect, onsite systems contribute 51 percent of pollutant loading in the Crystal River / Kings Bay springshed (413,555 pounds of nitrogen a year), 49 percent in the Weeki Wachee springshed (641,621 pounds a year), and about 32 percent across the Homosassa and Chassahowitzka plan area. Each figure is from its own June 2025 plan; the 2018 plans those replaced put the first two far lower, which is why a number quoted from an older document is worth checking against the current one.
What exactly is required, and where
Two statutes carry the framework. Section 373.807, Florida Statutes requires each BMAP with a significant septic contribution to include an onsite sewage remediation plan, and section 373.811 bars a new conventional system on a lot of one acre or less inside a BMAP for an Outstanding Florida Spring where sewer is not available, allowing only a system that reaches at least 65 percent nitrogen reduction. The three June 2025 plans go further on new systems: inside the Priority Focus Area the enhanced requirement applies on any lot size, and the one-acre test applies outside the PFA but inside the plan area. For existing homes, each plan's remediation policy applies to systems in the PFA on all lot sizes, and the county health departments set the permit-application date: repairs and modifications filed on or after December 15, 2025 must carry an ENR design. This guide cites the DOH-Citrus and DOH-Hernando notices for that date and the plans themselves for the scope.
- Covered zones, Citrus County: the Crystal River / Kings Bay PFA, which sits wholly in Citrus, and the Homosassa / Chassahowitzka PFA, which spans southern Citrus and northern Hernando. Coastal and western communities such as Crystal River and Homosassa lean inside; the eastern Tsala Apopka and Withlacoochee side, including much of Inverness and Floral City, leans outside. Detail on the county page: Citrus County septic.
- Covered zones, Hernando County: two plans reach this county, not one. The Weeki Wachee plan covers southern Hernando including part of the City of Brooksville, and the Homosassa and Chassahowitzka plan covers northern Hernando, also including part of Brooksville. The DOH-Hernando notice names both. The Weeki Wachee PFA reaches into Spring Hill; Brooksville, up on the ridge, leans outside the mapped PFAs for most parcels, but a Brooksville address sits inside a plan area either way, so the parcel check is the answer rather than the town name. Detail: Hernando County septic.
"Leans" is the honest verb. Priority Focus Area membership is decided parcel by parcel, not by town name, and this site never tells you a whole city is in or out. Check your address against the Florida DEP map and your county health department; the PFA self-check guide walks through it.
What counts as an ENR system
An enhanced nitrogen-reducing OSTDS is one approved as capable of at least 50 percent total nitrogen reduction before the drainfield, or at least 65 percent total nitrogen reduction combined from the tank and drainfield. "At least 65 percent total nitrogen reduction" is the plain-language standard, defined in section 381.0065, Florida Statutes. Three technology families qualify, per the Florida DEP's Enhanced Nitrogen-Reducing OSTDS permitting guidance (floridadep.gov/water/onsite-sewage):
- In-ground nitrogen-reducing biofilters (INRBs)
- Nitrogen-reducing aerobic treatment units certified to NSF/ANSI 245
- Florida-approved nitrogen-reducing performance-based treatment systems (PBTS)
Which family fits your parcel is an engineering call: lot size, soil, water table, and budget all weigh in. The ENR upgrade service page covers the decision in depth, and the final design gets drawn to your actual site.
What triggers the requirement (and what does not)
- Triggers it: a permit application filed on or after 2025-12-15 to repair, modify or replace an existing system on a PFA parcel, and a new system inside a PFA on any lot size. A drainfield replacement is the classic example of a modification: drainfield replacement explains when the rule attaches.
- The one written way out: each June 2025 plan says the enhanced system must go in on a repair, modification or replacement unless the permit applicant documents that a sewer connection to the property is planned and funded and that the structures on the lot will be connected. Both counties run septic-to-sewer projects, so on some addresses that is a real answer rather than a technicality. It is also a commitment: once a utility gives written notice under FS 381.00655 that its line is available, an existing system's owner has 365 days to connect. Ask the county health department whether your parcel qualifies before you design around it.
- Does not trigger it: selling or buying the home. Florida has no statewide point-of-sale septic inspection mandate; in fact section 381.00651, Florida Statutes bars a governmental entity from mandating an evaluation at the point of sale in a real estate transaction. Inspections in a home sale are buyer due diligence and lender practice, covered on the septic inspection page.
- Routine pumping: pumping a tank is maintenance, not a modification, and does not by itself trigger an ENR design. Schedule guidance lives on the pumping page.
One escape hatch exists: the ENR requirement is waived if the applicant demonstrates central sewer will be available for connection within five years, per FS 373.807 and the Florida DEP's requirements for existing systems. In practice that matters most near active septic-to-sewer project areas, such as parts of Spring Hill.
How the permit works in these two counties
The Onsite Sewage Program transferred from the Florida Department of Health to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection on July 1, 2021 under the Clean Waterways Act (SB 712, Ch. 2020-150; Florida DEP program page). Unlike some counties that moved to DEP-direct permitting, Citrus and Hernando kept the county health department as the local permitting office: it takes the application, performs the site and soil evaluation, issues the construction permit, and inspects the installation.
- Citrus County: Florida Department of Health in Citrus County, Environmental Public Health, (352) 513-6100 (DOH-Citrus onsite sewage page). The county's current construction-permit fee schedule was not published where we could verify it; confirm the dollar figure with the office directly.
- Hernando County: Florida Department of Health in Hernando County, Environmental Public Health, Spring Hill office, (352) 540-6812 (DOH-Hernando onsite sewage page). Its DH 4015 permit instructions put the new-construction OSTDS permit at $350.00, application and plan review at $100.00, and an unmarked lot at $10 (read 2026-07-18). That document is no longer posted at the address we read it from, so confirm the current amounts with the office.
The full sequence, county by county, with timelines: the septic permit process in Citrus and Hernando. Process support, including the soil evaluation and the permit-before-build order of operations: permitting and soil evaluation.
What it costs, and where county help is listed
Reported Florida ranges, labeled as estimates and not quotes: a conventional new install runs roughly $5,000 to $12,000; a drainfield replacement roughly $3,000 to $15,000, more where karst soil or a high water table forces an engineered system; an ENR or aerobic system installed in a BMAP springs zone roughly $15,000 to $35,000 or more, a premium of roughly $8,000 to $20,000 over conventional. An ENR system also carries an operating permit and a maintenance contract for the life of the system. The full breakdown, sourced and banded: ENR septic system cost in Florida.
Each county runs its own upgrade program, and help toward an approved nitrogen-reducing system may be offered through the Citrus County Septic Upgrade Incentive Program or the Hernando County Septic Upgrade Incentive Program inside the Weeki Wachee Springs PFA. This guide prints no amounts, caps or application dates for either one. Those terms and the eligibility rules change, and the county pages are the current word, so check yours before you plan around it. There is also no federal income-tax credit or rebate for a residential septic system, per IRS residential-energy guidance. Budget at full price and treat county money as upside if you qualify.
If you are starting a project now
Work the question in this order. First, place your parcel: do I need a nitrogen-reducing septic system in Citrus or Hernando County? maps each town to its likely PFA status and teaches the parcel-level check. Second, scope the work: new installation for new construction, drainfield replacement for a field at end of life, repair for tanks, lines, and baffles, or the ENR upgrade where the mandate attaches. Third, if a home sale is in the picture, read buying or selling a home with septic in Florida before the inspection period starts, and if you will own an advanced system, owning an ENR septic system explains the operating permit and maintenance contract that come with it.
When you are ready, a licensed local septic contractor working in your county looks at the parcel and prices the work. That is the whole service, and it is free.