Off-Grid Living in Clay County, Mississippi

I'll be upfront: Clay County, Mississippi doesn't publish much online. The county's official site, claycountyms.com, is mostly a directory of departments and elected offices. I could not find a zoning ordinance, zoning map, building code adoption, or septic ordinance specific to Clay County on the county's own site or on a code host like Municode. So for a lot of this, I'm reporting the Mississippi state baseline and flagging clearly where the county hasn't confirmed anything of its own.

Zoning. I couldn't locate a countywide zoning ordinance for unincorporated Clay County. There's a non-official web reference suggesting unincorporated areas require permits for construction, septic, and land-disturbance through county offices, but since that's not an official county page, I'm not treating it as confirmed. West Point, the county seat, is the only incorporated city and would run its own separate permitting for anything inside city limits.

Dwellings, tiny homes, RVs. No ordinance found addressing tiny homes on wheels or RV occupancy. Mississippi has no statewide tiny-home law, and this is normally a county-level call that Clay County doesn't appear to have codified anywhere public.

Building permits. No building-permit page, adopted code, or fee schedule found for the county. Contractor licensing in Mississippi runs through the state licensing board, not the county, but whether Clay County itself enforces a residential code (like the IRC) for unincorporated land is not confirmed.

Septic and greywater. This one I can confirm. The Mississippi State Department of Health (MSDH), Division of On-Site Wastewater, lists Clay County among the counties it regulates directly. Septic systems need a permit, soil evaluation, and a licensed installer through MSDH's process. Greywater isn't handled separately in Mississippi, it falls under that same onsite wastewater framework since there's no standalone state or county greywater law.

Rainwater harvesting. No Clay County rule found either way. Mississippi's general state posture allows residential-scale rainwater collection without a permit, and nothing suggests the county has added restrictions.

Wells. Private well drilling is licensed and regulated at the state level. MSDH's local environmental health function also touches private wells, including water sampling and providing the recommendation needed for a water meter. No Clay County-specific well ordinance was found.

Off-grid electric. No county statement on mandatory grid connection. This inherits the state baseline: off-grid generation itself is legal, but full disconnection from utility interconnection can run into state-level friction depending on your setup.

Bottom line for Clay County: septic/wastewater is the one area with a clear, confirmed authority (MSDH). Everything else, zoning, dwellings, building codes, wells, and utilities, is a call-and-ask situation with the county directly, since I couldn't find it published anywhere official.