Columbia County, WI's soil, for a septic absorption field

Very limited

In Columbia County, WI, 89.4% 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. Columbia County covers 765.6 square miles and counts 58,113 residents.

This is a county figure, not a parcel figure

Nothing about Columbia County, WI'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 Columbia County.

System cost, conventional vs. engineered

Given Columbia 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 Columbia County, WI compares

Nationally, Columbia County, WI is the 1,332-most-constrained of 3,058 rated counties for septic soil. Within Wisconsin alone it ranks 43 of 72.

Related guides

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