Cape Coral UEP Hookup: What the Plumbing Side Involves

What the Utilities Extension Project is

The Utilities Extension Project, or UEP, is the City of Cape Coral’s long-running program to bring city water, sewer and irrigation service to neighborhoods that were built on septic tanks and shallow private wells. Each phase gets water mains, gravity sewer lines running to lift stations, reclaimed-water irrigation lines, and usually new roads and stormwater work.

As of 2026, the city lists North 2 as complete with areas ready for connection. North 1 West has reached substantial completion and residents there have been getting their notices. North 1 East is under construction, with the city projecting completion by the end of 2027. North 3 is in design, and North 5 and North 6 are in the study stage. Schedules shift, so check with the city for your street.

The city builds everything in the street. The work between the street and your house is on you and your plumber.

What your Notice of Availability means

When the lines in front of your property are finished and accepted, the city mails a Notice of Availability, usually called the NOA. It tells you that water and sewer are now available at your lot and that the clock to connect has started.

The city’s standard window is 180 days from the NOA. That’s the number on the city’s current connection guidance. The city has extended the window for specific phases in the past (North 2 owners were given 240 days by a 2020 council resolution), so read your own letter for the exact date that applies to you. Don’t assume you’ll get extra time.

Six months goes faster than people expect once you add the application, permits, inspections and the septic step.

About the assessment

The NOA is separate from the UEP assessment that pays for the street work. Assessments are figured per equivalent parcel, with prepayment or long-term payment on the tax bill offered in past phases. Amounts and options differ by phase, so rely on your assessment notice and the city’s billing office.

Who does what: the city, your plumber and the septic side

The City of Cape Coral

• Installs the mains and service connections in the right-of-way
• Takes your online utility extension application and collects the connection fees
• Installs your water meter after the fees are paid
• Performs the water, sewer and irrigation inspections

You, the property owner

• Submit the application with photo ID for every owner and the name of your plumber
• Pay the meter installation fee, the utility account deposit and the septic abandonment permit fee (current amounts are on the city’s connection page)
• Keep an eye on the deadline in your NOA

Your plumber

• Pulls the hookup permit through the city’s permitting system, including the required wildlife affidavit and the Health Department septic abandonment form
• Runs the new water line from the meter to the house and the sewer lateral from the house to the city’s connection
• Handles the sprinkler connection if you’re tying into city irrigation
• Submits the chlorination affidavit and the water and sewer test results, then restores the right-of-way after inspections pass

The septic hauler and the Health Department

A licensed septage hauler pumps the tank. The Florida Department of Health in Lee County permits and inspects the abandonment. The tank itself can be crushed and filled by the owner living in the home, a licensed septic contractor or a plumbing contractor.

The water connection

The city sets the meter. From the meter, the city’s hookup instructions call for Schedule 40 or Schedule 80 PVC run to the building, a shut-off valve where the line enters the house, and a minimum burial depth of 12 inches after final grade. The dual check valve the city puts on the meter stays in place. Nobody removes it.

The big rule is no cross-connection. Your well and city drinking water have to be completely separate. Older homes sometimes have the well tied in where nobody remembers, like a well-fed hose bib or an old treatment bypass. All of it gets found and cut apart before the city passes the job.

After the line is in, it gets chlorinated and pressure tested, and the trench stays open until the inspector signs off. If the house has had pinhole leaks or low flow on well water, our whole-house repiping page explains when replacing lines makes more sense than patching, and leak detection can confirm what’s going on before you decide. For the new service itself, see our water line page.

The sewer connection

The UEP uses a gravity sewer system. Wastewater flows downhill through the lateral into the city’s line and on to a lift station. That makes slope the whole game on the sewer side. The city’s instructions call for a 4-inch sewer pipe with at least 1/8 inch of fall per foot, a two-way cleanout no closer than 18 inches from the building, and another cleanout every 80 feet after that. The electronic marker at the city’s service lateral has to go back where it belongs.

The first task is finding where the house drain leaves the building. On a septic home it heads toward the tank, often away from the street. Your plumber intercepts that drain, reroutes it around the tank and brings it to the city’s connection at the right depth. A low house and a long run take planning to get enough fall.

If the drains inside the house already back up or run slow, tell your plumber up front. Tying a sluggish system to a new city line doesn’t fix it. We’d rather camera the line and clear it with proper drain cleaning first. If the existing pipe under or next to the slab is broken or bellied, that’s a sewer line repair conversation, and it’s better to have it before the new lateral goes in.

Septic tank abandonment

Once the house is on city sewer, the old septic tank has to be taken out of service. The tank doesn’t have to be removed from the ground, but it does have to be collapsed and abandoned properly. The Florida Department of Health in Lee County lays out the steps:

• Submit the abandonment application and pay the permit fee
• Have the tank pumped by a licensed septage hauler and keep the receipt
• Crush or collapse the tank so it can’t hold water, by breaking the bottom or collapsing the walls
• Fill the hole with clean sand and grade it
• Email the pump-out receipt to the Health Department and request the abandonment inspection

The Health Department says the abandonment has to be completed within 90 days of connecting to public sewer. That’s a separate clock from the hookup window, and it’s the one people forget after the plumbing inspection passes.

Keeping your well for irrigation

The city says existing wells can stay. Using yours for irrigation afterward depends on which UEP project you’re in. Your home has to connect to city water and sewer either way. The well can’t stay connected to anything inside the house.

In the northeast water-shortage area served by the Mid-Hawthorn Aquifer, the city has mailed mandatory irrigation connection letters under Ordinance 7-25 to properties where city irrigation is already available, with a 180-day window to connect. If you get one, plan on city irrigation.

If you do switch your sprinklers to city irrigation, the well piping has to be disconnected first. City irrigation water is treated reclaimed water. It can’t be used for drinking, bathing or filling a pool, it can’t be piped into the house or to any other hose connection, and the lines have to be purple-marked PVC buried at least 12 inches. If you hook potable city water to a sprinkler system instead, the city requires a vacuum breaker.

Permits and inspections

The hookup is permitted through the City of Cape Coral. One permit covers the water and sewer hookup, and your plumber applies for it online with the required affidavits attached. The septic abandonment is permitted separately through the Health Department.

• Water, sewer and irrigation inspections by the city, with trenches left open until approved
• Chlorination affidavit and water and sewer test results submitted by your plumber
• Right-of-way restoration inspection after the utility inspections pass
• Septic abandonment inspection by the Health Department

The property owner is responsible for any damage to city infrastructure during the work, and those repairs have to be made before the permit closes.

What affects the cost of your hookup

There’s no standard price because no two lots are alike. These factors move the number:

• Distance from the house to the meter and to the city sewer connection
• Where the building drain exits and how far it is from the street side
• Depth and slope needed to get proper fall on the sewer lateral
• What’s in the way: driveways, pavers, pool decks, fences, mature trees and landscaping
• How the well is tied into the house and how much untangling that takes
• Adding a city irrigation hookup for the sprinklers at the same time
• Condition of the existing drain and water piping inside the house
• Septic pump-out and abandonment work, depending on who handles it

City fees and your UEP assessment are separate from the plumbing work. Check your notice and the city’s billing office for those.

Homeowner checklist

• Write the connection deadline from your NOA on the calendar, then mark a date two months earlier
• Complete the city’s utility extension application and pay the connection fees
• Get a plumber scheduled and give them your NOA and any property survey you have
• Find your septic tank lid and drainfield, or dig out old records that show where they are
• Locate your well, pump and any treatment equipment, and note every spot the well feeds
• Mark sprinkler heads, low-voltage lighting and invisible dog fence wire near the work path
• Clear vehicles, planters and grills from the likely trench route
• Decide on the well for irrigation or a city irrigation hookup
• Book the septage hauler and file the Health Department abandonment application
• Plan for the 90-day septic abandonment deadline after you go on sewer

A typical timeline

Most jobs follow this order.

• NOA arrives. Your deadline starts. Read the letter and note the date.
• First few weeks. Submit the city application, pay fees and line up your plumber.
• Meter set. After payment, the city installs the water meter.
• Permit. Your plumber applies for the hookup permit with the affidavits and the septic abandonment form.
• Hookup day. Water line and sewer lateral go in, the well is separated, and trenches stay open.
• Tests and inspections. Chlorination and test results are submitted, and the city inspects.
• Restoration. The right-of-way is restored and inspected.
• Septic abandonment. Tank is pumped, crushed and filled, then inspected, within 90 days of going on sewer.

Common problems we see on hookups

Nobody knows where the septic line goes

Records on older homes are often missing or wrong. Finding the building drain and tank can take probing, test holes or a camera run from an inside cleanout.

Driveways, pavers and landscaping in the path

The shortest route to the street often runs under a driveway or through a planted bed. The city’s contractors restore driveway aprons and sod in the right-of-way during their restoration phase, but anything on your side of the property line that gets cut is part of your job. Talk through the route before digging starts.

Old or buried cleanouts

Cleanouts get buried under sod or concrete, or don’t meet the city’s spacing rules. New two-way cleanouts often have to be added.

Waiting too long

The most common problem isn’t technical. It’s starting in month five, when a failed inspection leaves no time to fix it.

How to schedule your UEP hookup

If your NOA just arrived, or you expect one soon, reach out and we’ll walk through your lot, your septic layout and your well setup. Call (239) 518-4198, email help@homeflowfl.com, or use our request form. You can read more about the work we do in the city on our Cape Coral plumber page, or see all of our residential plumbing services.

Parts of Lehigh Acres are also moving from septic to sewer, and the planning there works a little differently. See our Lehigh Acres plumber page, and check our service areas for the rest of Lee, Charlotte and Collier Counties. Buying an older home instead? Read our guide to polybutylene pipe and the 4-point inspection.