Level III soil surveys: Onsite sewage management (septic) systems are common throughout Georgia, particularly outside of urban areas. But septic systems won’t work if installed in the wrong soil. So we perform soil borings and map soil types at your site to determine the best location for your septic drainfield and provide Level III soil reports to enable septic system permitting.
Decades ago, percolation tests, or “perc tests” were used to test the rate of water infiltration to determine if soil was suitable for a septic system. Today, we use a system called Soil Taxonomy to classify the types of soil at a site. Based on the soil types, we determine suitability for septic drainlines and the length of lines appropriate for each location.
The soil in the photo below is gray, or has “low chroma”, which indicates it’s often saturated with water and would be a poor location for a septic system.