Septic soil in Stone County, AR, by the numbers

Very limited

89.3% of Stone County, AR's surveyed soil comes back "Very limited" in USDA's own SSURGO data, the county's dominant condition for a septic absorption field. Expect the ground itself to work against a plain gravity system; USDA's strictest bucket alone covers 89.3% of the county. Stone County covers 606.44 square miles and counts 12,785 residents.

This is a county figure, not a parcel figure

Stone 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 Stone County.

System cost, conventional vs. engineered

Given Stone 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, Stone County, AR is the 1,347-most-constrained of 3,058 rated counties for septic soil. Within Arkansas alone it ranks 45 of 75.

Further reading

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