Sumter County, SC's soil, for a septic absorption field

Very limited

In Sumter County, SC, 72.5% 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. Sumter County covers 665.078 square miles and counts 104,776 residents.

This is a county figure, not a parcel figure

Two lots a mile apart in Sumter County can carry different soil, even though they share one countywide rating. A site-specific perc test, usually $750-$1,850, is what a health department will actually require before permitting a lot in Sumter County.

System cost, conventional vs. engineered

Given Sumter 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 Sumter County, SC compares

Nationally, Sumter County, SC is the 2,384-most-constrained of 3,058 rated counties for septic soil. Within South Carolina alone it ranks 23 of 46.

Before you act on this

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