Pepin County, WI's soil, for a septic absorption field

Very limited

Soil across 81.7% of Pepin County, WI rates "Very limited" in USDA's septic-absorption-field interpretation. 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. Pepin County covers 232.008 square miles and counts 7,555 residents.

This is a county figure, not a parcel figure

Pepin County's rating is an average across the whole county, not a promise about any one lot inside it. A site-specific perc test, usually $750-$1,850, is what a health department will actually require before permitting a lot in Pepin County.

System cost, conventional vs. engineered

Given Pepin 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.

Pepin County's rank among Wisconsin counties

Nationally, Pepin County, WI is the 1,953-most-constrained of 3,058 rated counties for septic soil. Within Wisconsin alone it ranks 65 of 72.

Related guides

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