Septic or sewer is one of the first things lot buyers ask about. The answer changes from one Lake of the Ozarks neighborhood to the next. It sets your hookup costs, your yearly dues and how the house sits on the lot. Here is how water and sewer work in each area we sell.
Water and sewer by neighborhood
- Horseshoe Bend (Four Seasons): public water and an engineered septic system. There is no public sewer, with one exception: Country Club Estates No. 2 Lot 134 sits near public sewer. See the Horseshoe Bend lots for sale.
- Porto Cima (Shawnee Bend): community sewer and public water from Camden County Public Water Supply District #4 (PWSD #4). There is no septic field. See the Porto Cima lots for sale.
- Camelot Estates: public water and public sewer. See the Camelot Estates lots for sale.
- Tahoe Lake Estates: engineered septic system. See the Tahoe Lake Estates lots for sale.
- Miller County tracts: a private well and a septic system. There is no public water or public sewer.
- Parkview: the Parkview Declaration provides a central water system and a central sewer system run by the Association. It bars septic tanks on individual lots.
Porto Cima: grinder pump and community sewer
Porto Cima homes tie into the community low-pressure sewer run by PWSD #4. Here is what that means for a buyer.
- You buy and install a grinder pump. PWSD #4 requires an electrical disconnect for it.
- You pay for the buried service line from the house to the main.
- Roof and gutter drains, floor drains, pools and hot tubs cannot connect to the sewer.
- 2026 PWSD #4 connection fees for a standard 3/4-inch meter are $8,387 for water and $9,217 for sewer, or $17,604 together. These exclude trenching, the service line, any road bore and the grinder pump.
PWSD #4 also charges an availability fee of $300 a year on undeveloped or unconnected Shawnee Bend lots. On Horseshoe Bend, lots in the listed subdivisions pay $87 a year where a water main has been provided. The Horseshoe Bend water connection fee is the same $8,387.
What an engineered septic system with an aerobic unit means
Where there is no public sewer, a Four Seasons lot gets an engineered septic system with an aerobic unit, as the POA requires. The aerobic unit is a mechanical treatment tank. It runs on electric power and has a control panel on its own dedicated circuit. Here is the process.
- A Missouri-licensed Professional Engineer designs the system and seals the plans.
- A soil morphology evaluation by a DHSS-registered soil scientist comes first, for each property. The results go into the design and set the method and size of the absorption field.
- The unit comes from the POA’s approved NSF Class 1 list: Jet, Norweco Singulair, MicroFAST, Multi-Flo, Delta Ecopod or Anua Puraflow.
- The engineer inspects the installation, and the POA inspects it as well.
- POA setbacks: 10 ft from side lot lines, 5 ft from the upslope foundation and 20 ft from the downslope boundary. The aerator tank sits at least 5 ft from footings.
- The work is completed within 90 days of approval. The architectural committee strongly recommends installing the system before the footings. The POA strongly encourages a maintenance contract.
Missouri’s on-site sewage rule (19 CSR 20-3.060) sizes a system at 120 gallons per bedroom per day, with a 240 gallon minimum for a home. More bedrooms mean a larger system. The tank and the field each sit 50 ft from a lake and 10 ft from property lines. An aerobic unit does not reduce the field size the rule requires.
Dues follow the sewer type. In 2026 a built Horseshoe Bend lot pays $897 a year on septic and $725 on a grinder pump or gravity sewer. At Shawnee Bend it is $1,182 on septic and $991 on a grinder pump or gravity sewer. On Horseshoe Bend multi-family lots such as those in Cornett Cove No. 4, density is up to one unit per 3,000 sq ft of land, and the septic design sets the final unit count.
When Camden County requires a septic permit
The Camden County Wastewater Department requires a septic permit for:
- residential lots under 3 acres
- residential lots that adjoin the Lake of the Ozarks, at any size
- lots with more than one house
- multi-family development
The steps are simple. A Missouri on-site soil evaluator tests the soil first. You then file the application, the design and the permit fee ($150 on the county’s sheet). A county inspector visits, and the site, system and tank are flagged. The permit is issued when setbacks are met and lasts 1 year. A registered installer does the work. A variance request goes to the Variance Board, which meets on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of each month.
A single-family lot of 3 acres or more is excluded from the state on-site rules when every part of the system is more than 10 ft from any property line and nothing reaches neighbors, surface water or groundwater. The exclusion does not apply to lots next to a lake operated by a public utility such as Ameren, or by the Corps of Engineers. In Miller County, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services issues septic permits. In Tahoe Lake Estates, a lot under 3 acres follows the county permit path, and hillside lots use an engineered drip system.
Find your lot
Every listing shows its utilities, so you know the water and sewer situation before you make an offer. Browse all lots for sale or make an offer on one lot or several. Call or text 573-480-8756.
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