Christian County, IL's soil, for a septic absorption field

Very limited

88.9% of Christian County, IL's surveyed soil comes back "Very limited" in USDA's own SSURGO data, the county's dominant condition for a septic absorption 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. Christian County covers 709.483 square miles and counts 33,247 residents.

This is a county figure, not a parcel figure

USDA's survey covers the whole of Christian County, IL at once, not any single address. A site-specific perc test, usually $750-$1,850, is what a health department will actually require before permitting a lot in Christian County.

System cost, conventional vs. engineered

Given Christian 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, Christian County, IL is the 1,380-most-constrained of 3,058 rated counties for septic soil. Within Illinois alone it ranks 51 of 101.

Related guides

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