Septic soil in Dickinson County, MI, by the numbers

Very limited

72.6% of Dickinson County, MI's surveyed soil comes back "Very limited" in USDA's own SSURGO data, the county's dominant condition for a septic absorption field. This is the reading that pushes a project toward an engineered system rather than a conventional one, and it covers 72.6% of Dickinson County's land. Dickinson County, MI is 760.95 square miles with a population of 25,995.

What Dickinson County's reading doesn't cover

USDA's survey covers the whole of Dickinson County, MI at once, not any single address. A local percolation test, typically $750-$1,850 (around $1,300 typical), is the only way to know what one lot in Dickinson County will actually do.

What a system would cost here

With 72.6% of Dickinson 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.

How Dickinson County, MI compares

Nationally, Dickinson County, MI is the 2,382-most-constrained of 3,058 rated counties for septic soil. Within Michigan alone it ranks 82 of 83.

Before you act on this

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