Is My House on Sewer or Cesspool? Long Island Lookups

Three weeks after the closing on a cape in Massapequa, the toilet in the hall bath backs up, and nobody ever told you who to call. If the house is on a sewer, a pump truck cannot help you. If it is on a cesspool, the sewer district will not come. Ten minutes with a county lookup sorts it out.

Look it up in Nassau

Try the Check for Sewer Service lookup that Nassau links from its septic grant page.
Or open the Health Department’s list of sewer districts by community. For each community it names the local sewer authority, with an address and phone number. Some communities, Brookville among them, are listed as not publicly sewered.
Call that authority to confirm your address. The Health Department says it does not keep connection records itself.

Look it up in Suffolk

Run your address through the county’s grant eligibility check. Being off the sewer, and outside a proposed sewer area, is one of the things it checks.
For the bigger picture, the county planning department’s tables of sewered areas and treatment plants list every county, town and village sewer district. They were last revised in 2012, so treat them as background, not proof for a single address.

What changes if you are sewered

In Nassau, you have to connect. County health officials require a hookup wherever a public sewer serves the street, and whatever system was in the yard before gets taken out of service under county rules.

The old system gets closed properly. The Health Department’s abandonment procedure, last revised in February 2018, calls for pumping out the liquid, backfilling tanks and leaching pools with clean, inert material, removing the metal castings and covers, and sealing them with a 5-inch precast concrete cover. It asks for notice at least five business days before field work, and approval before backfilling. The Bureau of Environmental Protection is at (516) 227-9692.

The pipe to the street is still yours. According to Long Island Sewer and Water Main, owners in most places, Nassau towns among them, look after their own lateral all the way out to the main. A blockage there is a sewer line repair job.

There is a hotline for the public side. For trouble in the county’s own sewer, Public Works gives SUEZ’s emergency number: 866-224-8508.

If you are not sewered

Then the system in the yard is yours to pump and maintain. Our pages on cesspool pumping and the difference between a cesspool and a septic tank are the place to start, and both counties have grants for upgrading it.

Sewer or cesspool questions

How do I check if my Nassau house is on a sewer?

Nassau links a "Check for Sewer Service" lookup from its SEPTIC grant page. The Nassau County Department of Health also publishes a list of public sewer districts by community, with each local sewer authority's phone number, and says to contact that authority for a property's connection status.

How do I check in Suffolk?

Suffolk's grant eligibility check, run by address, looks at whether a property is connected to a sewer or sits in a proposed sewer area. The county planning department also publishes tables of every sewer district and treatment plant.

If my street has a sewer, can I keep the cesspool?

Not in Nassau. Its health department requires properties on a sewered street to connect and to close the old cesspool, leaching pools or tank properly.

Does a sewered house still need a cesspool company?

Sometimes. The pipe from the house to the street is still the owner's to look after in most Nassau towns, according to Long Island Sewer and Water Main, so a backup there is a sewer line job rather than a pump-out.