Greene County, IA's soil, for a septic absorption field

Very limited

In Greene County, IA, 78.2% 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. Greene County covers 569.558 square miles and counts 8,662 residents.

This is a county figure, not a parcel figure

USDA's survey covers the whole of Greene County, IA 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 Greene County.

System cost, conventional vs. engineered

Given Greene 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 Greene County, IA compares

Nationally, Greene County, IA is the 2,132-most-constrained of 3,058 rated counties for septic soil. Within Iowa alone it ranks 85 of 99.

Related guides

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