Septic soil in Cape Girardeau County, MO, by the numbers

Very limited

Soil across 90.4% of Cape Girardeau County, MO rates "Very limited" in USDA's septic-absorption-field interpretation. That reading means a conventional system is a poor bet here - 90.4% of Cape Girardeau County lands in the strictest "very limited" bucket USDA uses. Cape Girardeau County, MO is 578.517 square miles with a population of 83,658.

What Cape Girardeau County's reading doesn't cover

Nothing about Cape Girardeau County, MO's SSURGO figure applies to a specific address - it's a county-wide average. A local percolation test, typically $750-$1,850 (around $1,300 typical), is the only way to know what one lot in Cape Girardeau County will actually do.

What a system would cost here

With 90.4% of Cape Girardeau County rating "Very limited", a standard gravity system is not a safe assumption here. 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, Cape Girardeau County, MO is the 1,218-most-constrained of 3,058 rated counties for septic soil. Within Missouri alone it ranks 79 of 114.

Before you act on this

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