Orange County, FL's soil, for a septic absorption field

Very limited

Soil across 82.2% of Orange County, FL rates "Very limited" in USDA's septic-absorption-field interpretation. That reading means a conventional system is a poor bet here - 82.2% of Orange County lands in the strictest "very limited" bucket USDA uses. Orange County covers 903.053 square miles and counts 1,533,646 residents.

This is a county figure, not a parcel figure

USDA's survey covers the whole of Orange County, FL 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 Orange County.

System cost, conventional vs. engineered

Given Orange 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 Orange County, FL compares

Nationally, Orange County, FL is the 1,911-most-constrained of 3,058 rated counties for septic soil. Within Florida alone it ranks 39 of 65.

Related guides

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