Cherry County, NE's soil, for a septic absorption field

Very limited

98.7% of Cherry County, NE'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 - 98.7% of it sits in USDA's most-constrained bucket. Cherry County covers 5,960.099 square miles and counts 5,558 residents.

This is a county figure, not a parcel figure

Nothing about Cherry County, NE's SSURGO figure applies to a specific address - it's a county-wide average. A site-specific perc test, usually $750-$1,850, is what a health department will actually require before permitting a lot in Cherry County.

System cost, conventional vs. engineered

Given Cherry 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 Cherry County, NE compares

Nationally, Cherry County, NE is the 140-most-constrained of 3,058 rated counties for septic soil. Within Nebraska alone it ranks 9 of 93.

Related guides

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