Dallas
Dallas Water Utilities — Pretreatment and Laboratory Services Division
In short
Dallas Water Utilities — Pretreatment and Laboratory Services Division issues 3 permits we publish for Dallas, last verified 2026-08-21. Each carries the fee as the agency publishes it, with a link to the schedule it was read from.
What this agency issues
| Permit | Issuing agency | Fee | Renews | Last checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liquid Waste Transport Permitonly if it applies to you | Dallas Water Utilities — Pretreatment and Laboratory Services Division | $220 per vehicle, per year | annual | 2026-08-21 |
| Significant Industrial User Wastewater Discharge Permitonly if it applies to you | Dallas Water Utilities — Pretreatment and Laboratory Services Division | No fee | up to five years | 2026-08-21 |
| Grease or Sand Trap/Interceptor Permit | Dallas Water Utilities — Pretreatment and Laboratory Services Division | No fee | up to five years | 2026-08-21 |
Fees shown as a range or formula are set that way by the issuing agency — we do not average them into a single number.
About each permit
Liquid Waste Transport Permit
$220 per vehicle per year, renewed annually, with the permit sticker displayed on the rear of the vehicle. This is the hauler's permit rather than the restaurant's, but it matters because grease trap waste must leave on a permitted vehicle with a City of Dallas manifest — trip ticket books are $10 for 25 manifests. A new septic hauler pays a $500 excess flow registration fee, and disposal at the city receiving station is $4.50 per 100 gallons of septic tank waste, billed monthly. Vehicles must be exterior clean and odour-free at inspection.
Significant Industrial User Wastewater Discharge Permit
Required of a SIGNIFICANT INDUSTRIAL USER discharging industrial waste to the wastewater system under Dallas City Code Section 49-46 — discharging without one is an offence. Most small businesses are not significant industrial users: a restaurant with a kitchen is caught instead by the trap/interceptor permit in Section 19-126.3, which is a different instrument, and we list that separately. Confirm your classification with Pretreatment and Laboratory Services on 214-670-6749 before assuming this applies. There is no published fixed fee, and that is the actual position rather than a gap in our data: Section 49-18.16(h) provides that where Chapter 49 specifies no charge for a service, the director sets one based on the cost of performing it, so the amount is cost-based and case-by-case. Keep that separate from the ordinary wastewater bill, which is a different thing entirely — under Section 49-18.2(c)(5) separately metered wastewater is charged at $5.20 per 1,000 gallons discharged, on top of a monthly customer charge running from $5.34 for a 5/8-inch meter to $649.31 for a 10-inch meter or larger, plus any surcharge for excessive concentrations. Process matters as much as price: the application must be filed at least 90 days before discharge begins or recommences, a renewal at least 30 days before the current permit expires, the term may never exceed five years, and the permit is neither transferable nor assignable. Discharge limits are set in Section 49-43 and vary by receiving plant. Our crawler cannot reach this source — the code library returns 403 to automated clients — so the text was read from the published section by hand rather than machine-extracted.
Grease or Sand Trap/Interceptor Permit
This is the permit a Dallas food business actually needs for its grease trap, and operating a food service establishment with a grease or sand trap without a valid one is an offence under Section 19-126.3. It is separate from the industrial discharge permit under Section 49-46, which applies to significant industrial users rather than restaurants. The code sets no fee for it; under Section 49-18.16(h) the director sets charges based on the cost of the service where Chapter 49 specifies none, so ask Pretreatment and Laboratory Services on 214-670-6749 for the current amount. The permit term may not exceed five years and the permit is neither transferable nor assignable, so buying an existing restaurant does not carry the permit with it. The operating rules are specific. A grease trap on a food service premises must be 100 per cent pumped out at the earlier of every 90 days, or the point at which floating material, sediment, oils or grease reach at least 25 per cent of the wetted height measured from the bottom of the trap to the invert of the outlet pipe — whichever comes first, so a busy kitchen will hit the 25 per cent trigger well before the 90 days are up. Whenever it is cleaned, the volume removed must equal the trap's full nominal capacity; a partial skim does not count as a pump-out. The trap must be of a type and capacity approved by the director and sited so it is easily accessible for cleaning, inspection and monitoring. On discharge quality, Section 49-43(b)(12) prohibits wastewater exceeding 200 mg/L of oils, fats and grease measured as total oil and grease, unless the director has set a different limit under an industrial waste discharge permit. Waste must leave on a permitted liquid waste transport vehicle with a City of Dallas manifest, and cleaning records should be kept. One thing we will not tell you, because no current primary source says it: we have seen no provision prohibiting bacterial or enzyme additives outright. Current guidance says only that such products do not reduce the required pump-out frequency. Our crawler cannot reach this source — the code library returns 403 to automated clients — so the text was read from the published section by hand rather than machine-extracted.
Contact
- Jurisdiction
- Dallas
- Phone
- Not verified — use the website
Contact details are taken from the agency’s own site or its published fee schedule. Where we have not verified a phone number we leave it blank rather than guess.
Sources
Every fee and term above was read from one of these government pages on the date shown.
- Dallas City Code Chapter 19, Article X — Section 19-126.2 Traps/Interceptors Required and Section 19-126.3 Permit Required for Traps/Interceptors (Ordinance 28084)City of Dallas, Code of Ordinances (American Legal Publishing) · primary source · retrieved 2026-08-21
- Dallas City Code Chapter 49, Water and Wastewater — Sections 49-18.2, 49-18.16, 49-43 and 49-46City of Dallas, Code of Ordinances (American Legal Publishing) · primary source · retrieved 2026-08-21
- Liquid Waste Transport — Dallas Water Utilities Pretreatment and Laboratory ServicesCity of Dallas Water Utilities · primary source · retrieved 2026-08-22
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