Septic Tank Pumping in Oceana, WV

Where the Oceana town sewer ends and septic tanks begin

The Town of Oceana provides water and sewer service to its residents. Its sewage plant sits west of town at Lynco, on WV-971, and releases treated water into Clear Fork. The town has also received EPA money, with a state match, to upgrade its sewer collection system.

On the state's utility map, public water reaches far more homes around town than public sewer does. The town's sewer area runs west past its limits to Lillyhaven and Lillydale. Toward Edith and Matheny, homes sit outside any mapped sewer area. Hundreds of homes within 2 miles of town are off the sewer map and most likely on septic tanks.

Oceana sits where Laurel Fork meets Clear Fork, in the Upper Guyandotte watershed. A state cleanup plan for that watershed counts about 13,500 homes near streams with no public sewer. It names failing septic systems and straight pipes as major sources of bacteria. Clear Fork itself is on the state's list of impaired streams, with bacteria among the causes.

Why is the ground around Oceana so hard on drain fields?

The federal soil survey maps most of Oceana's 24870 ZIP code as very steep, extremely stony slopes. It rates about 96 percent of that land as very limited for a septic drain field. Many homes sit lower, on creek bottoms, where the survey flags slow drainage and water near the surface. NOAA's weather station just southeast of town averages about 51 inches of rain and melted snow a year.

State design rules bar a drain field on ground steeper than 25 percent. They also call for 3 feet of soil between the field and rock or seasonal groundwater. Most of the mapped land around town is steeper than 25 percent. The cleanup plan drew septic failure zones from the same soil maps, with rates from 3 to 28 percent.

Down in town, the flat ground along Clear Fork and Laurel Fork floods. The state's flood tool puts about 4 in 10 homes in town inside a mapped 100-year floodplain. Flooding in February 2025 brought a federal disaster declaration for Wyoming County. When the water table is high, the EPA warns that sewage can back up into a house.

Older homes and buried septic lids around Oceana

Oceana counted 1,449 people in the 2020 Census. Census estimates date about 6 in 10 of its homes to before 1980. About 1 in 4 is a mobile home. Around town, the typical home sits on about a third of an acre, by county parcel records.

An older tank may have no riser, so its lid sits buried in the yard. The state's design rule now calls for a riser on a new tank set deeper than 12 inches. Our septic tank locating and digging finds the tank and digs down to the lid. A permitted system's file at the Wyoming County Health Department may hold a sketch of the tank's spot.

On a hillside lot, the line from the house to the tank can sag or pull apart. State design rules call for that line to fall at least an eighth of an inch per foot. A backup soon after a pumping can point to the line, and that calls for septic line repair.

Grease traps and business septic tanks in Oceana

The Wyoming County Health Department requires grease traps in food preparation areas, such as restaurants and school kitchens. That includes the restaurants along Cook Parkway. We handle grease trap cleaning for restaurants and commercial kitchens, on a set schedule or when a trap backs up.

A church or a shop past the sewer lines runs its own septic tank, often a larger one. We pump commercial septic tanks too, and we can put them on a regular schedule.