Septic soil in Cabell County, WV, by the numbers

Very limited

Soil across 87.8% of Cabell County, WV rates "Very limited" in USDA's septic-absorption-field interpretation. A standard gravity system routinely fails on ground like this; the same share of the county falls in USDA's worst absorption-field bucket outright. Cabell County covers 281.025 square miles and counts 91,489 residents.

This is a county figure, not a parcel figure

Cabell County's rating is an average across the whole county, not a promise about any one lot inside it. A site-specific perc test, usually $750-$1,850, is what a health department will actually require before permitting a lot in Cabell County.

System cost, conventional vs. engineered

Given Cabell 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.

How Cabell County, WV compares

Nationally, Cabell County, WV is the 1,480-most-constrained of 3,058 rated counties for septic soil. Within West Virginia alone it ranks 50 of 55.

Before you act on this

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