Septic Financial Assistance in Washington: Loans, Grants and Rebates

Sourced from Craft3, the Washington State Department of Ecology, the Washington State Department of Commerce, USDA Rural Development, Clallam Conservation District, and the health jurisdictions of Thurston, Snohomish, Tacoma-Pierce, Skagit, Whatcom, Jefferson, King, Mason and San Juan counties — last checked August 2026.

If your system has failed and you are looking at a five-figure bill, the honest picture is narrow. Outside Clallam County there are essentially three routes: a Craft3 loan, USDA Section 504 if you are very-low-income and rural, or the state Home Rehabilitation Grant Program if you are rural and income-qualified. Everything else on this page is smaller money for smaller jobs — which is still worth having, because maintenance is what stops a repair becoming a replacement.

The one statewide program: Craft3 Clean Water Loan

Status: open, actively lending, all 39 counties.

Craft3 is a non-profit community lender. Its Clean Water Loan is capitalized by the Department of Ecology through the Clean Water State Revolving Fund and the Centennial Clean Water Fund, and it is the reason Washington has any statewide answer at all. It covered only part of the Puget Sound region until September 1, 2021, when it expanded to the whole state.

Term	Detail
What it funds	Design, permitting, installation and maintenance; repair and replacement; in some cases connection to a nearby municipal sewer
Amount	From $10,000. Unsecured capped at $25,000 plus reserve; secured has no published ceiling
Rate	3.49% owner-occupied at or below 80% AMI · 6.49% above 80% AMI or rental
Term	Up to 7 years unsecured, up to 15 years secured
Fees	$350 loan fee, roughly $500 closing costs, $850 prepayment fee if repaid within 12 months
Included	Every loan carries a $2,000 operations and maintenance reserve
Who qualifies	System at least 25 years old, failing, or subject to a health officer order

Income is assessed on household income as defined by HUD. Craft3 does not publish which AMI year it uses — ask when you apply, because it decides which of the two rates you get.

One conflict worth knowing about. Craft3’s own page gives the rates above. A Department of Ecology blog post from September 2025 says Craft3 rates run “between 4.5% and 9.5%.” The two do not reconcile. We cite Craft3 because it is the lender, but confirm the rate when you apply rather than trusting either page, including this one.

And one possible development we cannot confirm. The same Ecology post states that from 2025 “it is also possible for grants, instead of loans, to cover the full project cost,” and that households under 50% of area median income may qualify for full coverage. Craft3’s own materials make no mention of any grant. We could not verify this from a second source. If you are under 50% AMI it is worth asking Craft3 directly — but do not plan around it until they confirm it to you.

Apply through Craft3 at craft3.org, or call 888-231-2170.

What Craft3 lends is the best cost figure Washington has

Nobody in Washington publishes what a septic replacement actually costs. But Craft3 publishes what it lends, and people borrow roughly what the job costs:

• Ecology, September 2025: more than 2,200 systems financed for more than $60 million — about $27,300 each.
• Ecology, September 2021: nearly 1,200 homeowners, $26.7 million — about $22,250 each.
• Craft3’s own published sample loan: $24,850 over 15 years.

The first two are our arithmetic from published totals, not figures either organization published as an average. But three independent routes landing between $22,000 and $27,300 is the most useful cost signal available, and it sits close to Ecology’s own statement that a new Washington system “can cost $30,000 or more.” See what a septic system costs to install in Washington for why the contractor estimates you will find elsewhere are so much lower.

Grants and rebates, county by county

Every one of these is local. If your county is not listed, we could not find a program — which is not the same as there being none. Call your local health jurisdiction and ask.

Clallam County — up to 75% cost-share

Status: open, but referral-gated. Clallam Conservation District pays up to 75% of the cost of repairing or replacing a failing system, including permits, design and soil evaluation. This is by a distance the most substantial septic assistance in Washington.

You must have lived in the home at least 12 months, be in a Pollution Identification and Correction focus area or the Clallam County Marine Recovery Area, demonstrate financial need, and be referred by Clallam County Environmental Health. Three bids from county-approved installers are required and payment is on reimbursement. The board reviews applications monthly. No maximum amount and no numeric income threshold are published. Start with Clallam County Environmental Health on (360) 417-2506.

Thurston County — up to $2,000, maintenance only

Status: open. Covers inspections, tank and pump-chamber pumping, riser installation, minor baffle or pipe repairs and pump replacement. It explicitly excludes drainfield repairs and permitted work — this is a maintenance grant, not a replacement grant.

Eligibility is household income below $65,350, or enrollment in the Senior/Disabled Property Tax Exemption or Deferral program. Owner-occupied primary residence, at least six months a year. You contribute at least 10%. One grant per parcel every three years. Contact enhealth@co.thurston.wa.us or (360) 867-2626.

Snohomish County — two grants

Status: open, first come first served. A preventative maintenance grant up to $599 for pumping, inspection, risers and baffle work, and a replacement grant for repair or replacement where you contribute $100 toward the permit. The replacement grant maximum is not published.

Eligibility for both is 60% or less of state median income — note that is SMI, not the area median income most other programs use, so the threshold is a different number from Thurston’s or Craft3’s.

Tacoma-Pierce County — discounts, no income test

Status: open; the Puget Sound Partnership-funded form runs to April 1, 2027. Not a grant or loan but a discount at point of service: $125 off a routine inspection, $125 off riser installation, $200 off pumping, $500 off minor repairs.

Eligibility is by watershed rather than income — designated areas include Alderton Creek, Key Peninsula, Lake Tapps, Lynch Creek, Minter Bay, Ohop Creek, Salmon Creek, South Prairie Creek Tributary, Spanaway Lake, Spiketon Ditch and Swan Creek, with the Partnership-funded track covering the Puyallup-White River and Gig Harbor watersheds. Submit at least two weeks before the work: omfa@tpchd.org, (253) 649-1421.

Skagit County — up to $500 rebate

Status: open. Up to $500 per parcel per 12 months: $100 inspection, $100 pumping, up to $200 lids and risers, up to $200 minor repairs. Maintenance only. You must complete the county’s free “Septics 101” class and use a Skagit-certified provider.

Two different end dates are published — the county brochure says December 31, 2025, the county web page says December 31, 2026. Confirm before relying on it. A separate EPA-funded voucher exists for low-income households; amount not published. septic@co.skagit.wa.us, (360) 416-1500.

Whatcom County — rebate, and Craft3 under a county name

Status: both open. The maintenance rebate pays $150 evaluation, $150 equipment installation, $250 pumping, rising to a $500 low-income total ($200 / $200 / $300). Requires homeowner training within three years and no rebate on that property in the previous three. Forms are published in English, Spanish, Punjabi and Russian.

Whatcom’s “OSS Loan Program” is not a county fund — it is the Craft3 loan delivered under the county’s name, with the same terms as above. The partnership dates to 2002 and has placed over $14 million with more than 650 property owners.

King County

Status: open. A septic maintenance and side sewer repair rebate, plus a Housing Repair Program offering interest-free loans and emergency grants to low- and moderate-income homeowners on 206-263-9095. Amounts are not published on the county’s financial assistance page.

Jefferson County — CLOSED

Status: closed. Out of funds since January 2022. Jefferson County Public Health ran a cost-share paying a percentage of repair or replacement for low and moderate income owners of single-family homes.

We leave it on this page deliberately. Programs like this reopen when new funding arrives, and Jefferson County Public Health invites homeowners to register interest in the meantime. If you are in Jefferson County, call and ask to be told when it returns.

Counties with no septic assistance program we could find

Mason County and San Juan County both publish septic pages with no grant, loan, rebate or cost-share of any kind — San Juan’s only money flows the other way, a $10 annual fee collected with property tax. In both, Craft3 is the route. Island County publishes a septic financial assistance page we could not retrieve; call them rather than assuming it is empty.

USDA Section 504 Home Repair Loans and Grants

Status: open, applications accepted year-round.

⚠️ Be wary of any page that gives a percentage-of-area-median-income figure for this program. USDA’s published eligibility uses no percentage formula at all. What it actually says you must do is:

• Be the homeowner and occupy the house
• Be unable to obtain affordable credit elsewhere
• Have a household income that does not exceed the very low limit by county
• For grants, be age 62 or older

The operative test is USDA Rural Development’s county-by-county “very low” income limit, looked up in its own table — not a percentage anyone can quote at you. Look up your county in USDA’s Direct Loan limit table, and check your address against its rural-area eligibility map, because the property must be in a qualifying rural area.

	Loan	Grant
Maximum	$40,000	$10,000 lifetime ($15,000 in a presidentially declared disaster area)
Rate and term	1% fixed, 20 years	—
Age requirement	None	62 or older
Purpose	Repair, improve or modernize; remove health and safety hazards	Remove health and safety hazards only

Loan and grant combined can reach $50,000, or $55,000 in a presidentially declared disaster area. A grant must be repaid if you sell the property within three years. Washington Rural Development state office: 1835 Black Lake Blvd SW, Suite B, Olympia WA 98512, (360) 704-7769.

One USDA program that does not apply here

USDA’s Individual Water and Wastewater Grants come up constantly in searches, and USDA publishes a Washington-titled page for them. Washington homeowners are not eligible. That program is restricted to Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas. Do not spend time on it.

Washington State Home Rehabilitation Grant Program

Status: open, ongoing. Run by the Department of Commerce and delivered through community action agencies. It names septic explicitly among the infrastructure it repairs, alongside sewer, water and foundations.

Income eligibility is met by any one of three alternative tests — at or below 200% of the Federal Poverty Level, 80% of area median income, or 60% of state median income. Priority goes to seniors, disabled residents, families with children under five, and veterans. It covers “eligible rural areas of Washington.”

Neither the maximum grant nor the definition of “rural” is published on the program page. You apply through a participating rehabilitation agency for your county, not to Commerce directly.

What you cannot do: apply to Ecology

The Department of Ecology is where most of this money originates — it awarded $23.6 million for ten on-site sewage projects and $20 million to continue the Craft3 loan program on June 30, 2026. But homeowners cannot apply to Ecology directly. Its funding goes to local governments and to Craft3, who then reach you. If a page tells you to apply to Ecology for a septic grant, it is wrong.

If you are American Indian or Alaska Native

The Indian Health Service Division of Sanitation Facilities Construction funds water supply and sewage disposal for tribal homes and communities. It does not take applications from individual homeowners. The work is administered by your tribe or tribal health organization, so approach their environmental health or housing department rather than IHS.

Two things people confuse

• San Juan Islands Conservation District also advertises a 75% cost-share. It is a farm program for landowners with livestock or agricultural production, and septic is not an eligible practice. It is not the Clallam program and it will not fix your septic system.
• Craft3 runs an Emergency Septic Replacement Loan Program in Oregon which appears in searches. It is Oregon-only.

What we could not source

Being explicit, because a missing number is not a missing program:

• Jefferson County’s cost-share percentage and maximum — the county pages are not retrievable
• Clallam’s maximum amount and its income threshold — “financial need” is not defined numerically
• Snohomish’s replacement grant maximum
• Commerce HRGP’s maximum grant and its definition of “rural”
• King County’s rebate amounts
• Island County’s program, whatever it is
• Kitsap Public Health District and Kitsap Conservation District — both are referenced as having septic incentives, neither publishes retrievable detail
• Whether the Craft3 grant option described by Ecology actually exists

This site is an independent information resource. We are not a health jurisdiction, a lender or a government agency, and we are not affiliated with the Washington State Department of Health, the Department of Ecology, Craft3 or any county. Program terms change without notice and several of the pages behind this one are undated. Confirm everything with the administering organization before you rely on it, and tell us if you find something here that is out of date.

Sources

• Craft3, Clean Water Loan (Washington) — program page and eligibility screener
• WA Dept of Ecology, on-site sewage project funding — program page
• WA Dept of Ecology, SepticSmart Week: Funding your septic fix (Sept 2025) — blog post
• WA Dept of Ecology, statewide expansion of septic loans (Sept 2021) — news release
• WA Dept of Ecology, 130 clean water projects funded (June 30, 2026) — news release
• Clallam Conservation District, on-site septic system repair — program page
• Jefferson County Public Health, resources for homeowners — page
• Thurston County, Homeowner Grant Program for Septic System Maintenance — application (PDF)
• Snohomish County Health Department, septic grants — grants page
• Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, financial assistance — page
• Skagit County Public Health, septic rebate program — rebate page
• Whatcom County, OSS Loan Program — page · Septic Maintenance Rebate — page
• King County, septic financial assistance — page
• USDA Rural Development, Section 504 Home Repair Loans and Grants — program page
• USDA Rural Development, direct loan income limits by county — limit table (PDF) · property eligibility map
• USDA Rural Development, Individual Water and Wastewater Grants (AZ, CA, NM, TX only) — program page
• WA Dept of Commerce, Home Rehabilitation Grant Program — program page
• San Juan Islands Conservation District, cost-share (farm program) — page
• San Juan County, on-site sewage program — page
• Indian Health Service, Division of Sanitation Facilities Construction — program page

Last reviewed August 2026. Every program above carries a status because these come and go — Jefferson County’s ran out of money in January 2022 and is still listed here for that reason. If you find one that has changed, tell us.