Septic soil in Palm Beach County, FL, by the numbers

Very limited

In Palm Beach County, FL, 81.2% 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. Palm Beach County covers 1,964.32 square miles and counts 1,582,055 residents.

This is a county figure, not a parcel figure

This is a countywide, area-weighted figure across every soil survey map unit in Palm Beach County, FL - never a reading for one specific parcel. A site-specific perc test, usually $750-$1,850, is what a health department will actually require before permitting a lot in Palm Beach County.

System cost, conventional vs. engineered

Given Palm Beach 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.

Where this sits nationally

Nationally, Palm Beach County, FL is the 1,980-most-constrained of 3,058 rated counties for septic soil. Within Florida alone it ranks 41 of 65.

Before you act on this

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