Septage manifest

Definition

The record of what was pumped and where it went, which the hauler keeps for years.

Why It Matters

Ohio requires a manifest for every tank: the owner, the address, the quantity removed, the condition of the tank and its baffles, any repair made, the date, and the treatment plant or land application site that received it. Those records go to the board of health on a prescribed form and are kept by the hauler for at least five years, and the federal land application rules run their own five-year record on top of that. Ask to see a year of them before pricing a route, because a manifest book with gaps is a route whose disposal history cannot be reconstructed, and the receiving sites are the first thing a new owner has to re-establish.