You will no longer need to pay for maintaining and operating your septic system, nor the cost of replacing it with a newer septic system in the future. 

If you’re interested in connecting to the new sewerage system, you will need to pay:  

• A licensed plumber to disconnect and make safe your existing septic tank, and to connect your property’s plumbing to the new pressure sewer unit or gravity connection point. For most properties, this cost will vary between $3,000 to $8,000 for pressure sewer and $5,000 to $15,000 for gravity systems.  

The cost may be more for some properties depending on the distance of the house to the sewer connection point, ease of access to pipes and compliance of the existing plumbing at the property.  

Costs vary depending on the layout and size of your property and we recommend you obtain several quotes from licensed plumbers for this work. 

Three months AFTER you apply to connect to the new system, ongoing Yarra Valley Water sewerage charges will start to be applied to your quarterly water bill:  

• Sewerage system charge - a fixed charge for running, maintaining and repairing the sewerage system including sewer pipes and treatment plants
• Water and sewer usage – this charge pays for the cost of water used at your property, including treating and delivering it. It also covers the cost of removing sewage from your property and treating it safely - what goes down sinks, drains and toilets.
• Ongoing electricity costs to run the pressure sewer unit’s pump. This can range from approximately $70 to $150 a year. 

Find out more about connection cost information.

Once it’s ready, you don’t have to connect to the new sewerage system provided your onsite sewerage system is working effectively and in accordance with Section 3 of the EPA Code of Practice - Onsite Wastewater Management and council onsite wastewater system permit conditions. 

Your local council may require you to periodically demonstrate this compliance. In the future, when your system is no longer meeting these requirements you may want to consider connecting to the piped sewerage system. 

We’ll pay for the cost of constructing and maintaining the sewerage system and providing a connection point from your property to the pipes in the street. 

This includes the pump unit, boundary valve, discharge line and control panel. As the property owner, you’re responsible for installing and maintaining the plumbing on your side of the connection point. This includes the connection of the property drain. 

The pressure sewer unit has emergency storage, which allows it to hold more than the average amount of wastewater produced by a household in a day. This gives maintenance staff a day to respond before the emergency storage volume is filled. 

Our response times are typically within a few hours during business hours. If we’re notified of an issue after business hours, our maintenance crew will respond that day or the following morning, depending on the urgency of the job. 

During a power failure, we recommend reducing household water use by:

• Taking shorter showers
• If a bath was filled, leave the plug in until after the alarm is cancelled or empty out the water onto the lawn using a bucket.
• Switch off any drainage (automated or not) from swimming pools or spas until 12 hours after the power is restored.

In the event of extended power outages, our customer service team can assess the status of the pressure sewer unit over the phone with you. 

This assessment allows us to coordinate our approach and dispatch field teams, if required.

Our customer service team will also let you know how to identify if the tank is nearing full. If the tank fills, we either organise to pump out the storage tank or attend your property with a generator.

In June 2021, severe storms caused extensive and prolonged power outages in the Dandenong Ranges. Our customer service team provided timely call backs to pressure sewer customers, and there were no wastewater overflows from pressure sewer units during or after the weather event.

Download Fact sheet: Pressure Sewer Systems during power outages

Many septic systems in our Community Sewerage areas are old, poorly maintained or don’t comply with modern regulations.  

Ageing septic systems can leak untreated or poorly treated wastewater into other properties, drains and waterways, potentially polluting the environment and putting public health at risk. 

They also create boggy yards and unpleasant smells. 

Septic systems work by gradually releasing wastewater so that it’s absorbed by soil and plants on the property. Septic tanks can fail due to the following reasons: 

• The property may be too small.
• The soil may be high in clay content so it doesn’t absorb the wastewater.
• There may be a layer of rock or hard to break through soil beneath the surface.
• The property may be too steep and so the wastewater runs off before it is absorbed.
• Seasonal issues - often septic tanks work in summer but fail in winter when the soil is wet and evaporation rates are low. 

Many properties have ‘split systems’ where toilet water is treated by the septic tank and wastewater from the kitchen, shower and laundry flows into the stormwater system. This wastewater isn’t treated and flows straight into our creeks, rivers and bay polluting our waterways. 

A piped sewerage system has been assessed as the best option to address these issues in Community Sewerage areas.

If you would like to know more about the community sewerage program, gravity and pressure sewer connections, costs and more, read our frequently asked questions.