What Brown County, KS's soil rates for a septic system

Very limited

98.7% of Brown County, KS's surveyed soil comes back "Very limited" in USDA's own SSURGO data, the county's dominant condition for a septic absorption field. That reading means a conventional system is a poor bet here - 98.7% of Brown County lands in the strictest "very limited" bucket USDA uses. Brown County covers 570.871 square miles and counts 9,142 residents.

This is a county figure, not a parcel figure

This is a countywide, area-weighted figure across every soil survey map unit in Brown County, KS - never a reading for one specific parcel. A site-specific perc test, usually $750-$1,850, is what a health department will actually require before permitting a lot in Brown County.

System cost, conventional vs. engineered

Given Brown 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, Brown County, KS is the 137-most-constrained of 3,058 rated counties for septic soil. Within Kansas alone it ranks 13 of 105.

Related guides

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