Jefferson County, MS's soil, for a septic absorption field

Very limited

79.8% of Jefferson County, MS'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 79.8% of Jefferson County's land. Jefferson County covers 519.933 square miles and counts 6,900 residents.

This is a county figure, not a parcel figure

USDA's survey covers the whole of Jefferson County, MS 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 Jefferson County.

System cost, conventional vs. engineered

Given Jefferson 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.

Jefferson County's rank among Mississippi counties

Nationally, Jefferson County, MS is the 2,053-most-constrained of 3,058 rated counties for septic soil. Within Mississippi alone it ranks 71 of 82.

Before you act on this

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