Septic soil in Routt County, CO, by the numbers

Very limited

94.6% of Routt County, CO's surveyed soil comes back "Very limited" in USDA's own SSURGO data, the county's dominant condition for a septic absorption 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. Routt County, CO is 2,362.02 square miles with a population of 25,243.

What Routt County's reading doesn't cover

USDA's survey covers the whole of Routt County, CO at once, not any single address. A local percolation test, typically $750-$1,850 (around $1,300 typical), is the only way to know what one lot in Routt County will actually do.

What a system would cost here

With 94.6% of Routt County rating "Very limited", a standard gravity system is not a safe assumption here. 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.

Routt County's rank among Colorado counties

Nationally, Routt County, CO is the 707-most-constrained of 3,058 rated counties for septic soil. Within Colorado alone it ranks 5 of 63.

Before you act on this

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