Ford County's SSURGO septic rating
Very limited
Ford County, KS's SSURGO dominant class comes back "Very limited", covering 74.4% of the county. 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. For scale: 1,098.271 square miles and 34,072 people call Ford County home.
Before you rely on this for one lot
Two lots a mile apart in Ford County can carry different soil, even though they share one countywide rating. The real answer for one lot is still a site-specific perc test, running about $750-$1,850 (typically near $1,300).
Budgeting for a system in Ford County, KS
Ford County's soil reading pushes the likely outcome toward an engineered system rather than a conventional one. Conventional systems run $3,000-$8,000 where they pass; where they don't, engineered alternatives (mound or aerobic treatment, whichever the health department requires) run $10,000-$40,000 - budget toward the higher figure until a perc test says otherwise.
Where this sits nationally
Among the 3,058 rated counties on this site, Ford County, KS ranks 2,316 most-constrained nationally, and 73 of 105 within Kansas.
Related guides
How this rating is built, and its real limits · Conventional vs. engineered septic systems