What Cass County, ND's soil rates for a septic system

Very limited

In Cass County, ND, 83.8% of the surveyed land carries a "Very limited" rating for a standard septic drain field. 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. Cass County covers 1,764.935 square miles and counts 200,945 residents.

This is a county figure, not a parcel figure

Cass 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 Cass County.

System cost, conventional vs. engineered

Given Cass 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 Cass County, ND compares

Nationally, Cass County, ND is the 1,797-most-constrained of 3,058 rated counties for septic soil. Within North Dakota alone it ranks 13 of 53.

Further reading

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