Ballard County, KY's soil, for a septic absorption field

Very limited

83.5% of Ballard County, KY's surveyed soil comes back "Very limited" in USDA's own SSURGO data, the county's dominant condition for a septic absorption field. Practically, that rules out a simple gravity system for most of the county - 83.5% of it sits in USDA's most-constrained bucket. Ballard County covers 247.095 square miles and counts 7,626 residents.

This is a county figure, not a parcel figure

USDA's survey covers the whole of Ballard County, KY at once, not any single address. A site-specific perc test, usually $750-$1,850, is what a health department will actually require before permitting a lot in Ballard County.

System cost, conventional vs. engineered

Given Ballard County's rating, plan for the engineered-system range rather than the conventional one. The engineered-system range, $10,000-$40,000 (mound or aerobic treatment), is the more realistic number to plan around, against $3,000-$8,000 for a conventional system on the rare lot that passes.

Where this sits nationally

Nationally, Ballard County, KY is the 1,824-most-constrained of 3,058 rated counties for septic soil. Within Kentucky alone it ranks 84 of 119.

Further reading

How this rating is built, and its real limits · Conventional vs. engineered septic systems