Home/Maintenance
Keeping a Mississippi System Legal and Working
The obligation does not end when the inspector signs off. That is where it starts.
The rule: Mississippi requires every system to be maintained to the certified manufacturer requirements under Miss. Code Ann. §41-67-10, and advanced treatment systems additionally under §41-67-7(5).
An advanced treatment system has moving parts and a disinfection stage, and the state treats it as something that has to keep being looked after rather than something signed off once. On shrink-swell ground there is a second reason to keep the visits up: tanks and lines move with the clay, and joints that were sound at install do not always stay sound.
Treatment units in Rankin County: who maintains them, and how
An advanced treatment system in Mississippi comes with an Affidavit (Maintenance): after the installer’s initial maintenance period, the owner keeps a maintenance agreement with a Certified Installer or trains to become a Qualified Homeowner Maintenance Provider. Breaking it can bring a $500 administrative fine, and the water system may cut service until the owner complies. Under contract, the provider makes two inspections a year and reports to MSDH.
County office: Rankin County Health Department, 401 Parkway Drive, Pearl, MS, 601-420-4959; Rankin is in MSDH’s Central environmental region.
Sources: MSDH, Affidavit (Maintenance) for an advanced treatment system (form 7437); MSDH, Title 15 Part 3 Subpart 77, Individual On-Site Wastewater Disposal Systems; MSDH: county health departments, Central region. Checked October 2026.
What a service visit covers
The aerator or compressor running at the right output, the disinfection stage and its consumables, pumps, floats and alarms, sludge and scum levels, the spray or drip field, and the report, which is how the authority knows the system is being looked after.
What you can do yourself
- Listen for the compressor. A silent one has stopped treating.
- Never silence an alarm without finding out why it went off.
- Keep vehicles, roof water and deep roots off the tank and the field.
- Keep the reports. They are the asset when you sell.
A licensed site evaluator has to answer that with a soil test; nobody can tell from a map. Send us your address and we will pass it to a licensed local professional where one is available. Request a quote →