Septic Pumping, Inspections and Repair in Westford, MA

Permits

Septic permits and rules in Westford

Board of Health. The Westford Board of Health at 55 Main Street handles septic. Its Septic Systems & Title 5 page posts the town's septic regulations, a guide to building permits and septic requirements, the repair and new construction process, lists of licensed septic installers, licensed pumpers and haulers and licensed sanitarians and designers, and the bedroom-count deed restriction form (Septic Systems & Title 5). The same page says a Title 5 inspection report must include a well test.

When a system fails. The Board's guidance says a repair starts with an application for lot testing and its filing fee. A trench permit has to be pulled through the Building Department before the test date, and digging without one may bring a triple fee. The guidance also says not to use a garbage disposal unless the system was designed for one, and not to send water filtration backwash into the septic system (When Your Septic System Fails).

Public sewer

None; every home is on a private system

Board of Health

55 Main Street

Title 5 report

Must include a well test

Repair first step

Lot testing application, plus a trench permit before the test date

Well to septic

Drinking wells at least 100 feet from tanks and leach fields

Wetland buffer

No septic components in the buffer zone, except as the bylaw allows (rules effective December 9, 2020)

Additions and basements

Board policy effective July 1, 2008

Additions and finished basements. The Board's policy effective July 1, 2008 defines a bedroom as a room of at least 70 square feet with a ceiling of 7 feet 3 inches in new space (7 feet in existing space), electrical service, ventilation and at least one window. A home with more than eight rooms is presumed to have half that many bedrooms, rounded down. Adding a bedroom takes existing capacity without variances, a new compliant system or giving up a bedroom elsewhere, and new living space that exceeds 50% of the existing finished space needs a Title 5 inspection from the last two years before initial permit sign-off (Building Permits and Your Septic System).

State rules. A sale needs a Title 5 inspection within two years before closing, or three years if the system was pumped every year and the records go with the report, by a MassDEP-approved System Inspector (MassDEP buying or selling guide); NEIWPCC keeps the list. Designs come from a Registered Sanitarian or a Massachusetts-registered professional engineer, and nothing may flow into a new or repaired system before the Certificate of Compliance issues (310 CMR 15.000). MassDEP says to pump at least once every three years, and every year if the house has a garbage disposal (caring for your septic system).

Last verified November 2026. Fees, restrictions and deadlines on this page are due for re-checking by May 2027. New England Septic Pros is a referral service. We don't pump, inspect or build systems; the contractor files the permits.

Water

Water Westford protects

Wells and wastewater on the same lots. Roughly 40% of Westford properties get drinking water from an on-site well, and bedrock well testing at a sale covers arsenic, coliform, radon and lead among other items(Private Wells). Westford's Well Regulation, in effect since January 14, 2019, keeps wells at least 100 feet from all septic tanks and leaching fields (Well Regulation). The 2010–2015 open space plan says the Water Department's two treatment plants and eight supply wells, five at Forge Village and three at Nutting Road, served about 75% of the population (2010–2015 Open Space and Recreation Plan).

The Stony Brook aquifer. The Water Resource Protection Overlay District has three sub-areas that mirror MassDEP's Zones I to III, and Zone I is a 400-foot radius around drinking water supplies. The Stony Brook corridor sits over the town's only high-yield aquifer, which supplies the public water system (2010–2015 Open Space and Recreation Plan).

Ground that resists. The same plan says till transmits water slowly, which makes it poorly suited for sewage disposal; Paxton soils are limited by slow permeability and stoniness; and Freetown muck has a water table at or near the surface most of the year. Rock outcrops and shallow-to-bedrock soils turn up across town, so soil testing results vary from lot to lot.

Ponds and wetlands. Westford has eight Great Ponds, including Burge's, Flushing, Forge, Grassy, Heart, Keyes, Long-Sought-For and Nabnasset; Forge Pond covers 203 acres. The Wetland Protection Bylaw reviews work within 100 feet of a resource area and 200 feet of a perennial stream (Wetlands and Permitting), and the Wetland Rules and Regulations, effective December 9, 2020, bar any septic system or component in wetlands or the buffer zone except as the bylaw allows (Wetland Rules and Regulations, § 235-2).