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Soil Potential Ratings for Onsite Wastewater Disposal¹

ABSTRACT

The soil potential concept has been developed to provide more useful information in interpreting soil suitabilities for various uses. Soil potential rating systems have been applied to onsite wastewater disposal in several regions. However, true utility of this type of rating system will not be discernable until it has been widely applied to explore various approaches. A procedure was developed for generating soil potential ratings for onsite residential wastewater disposal. This procedure was used to rate every soil mapping unit (91) in Potter Township, Centre County, PA. These ratings were developed by selecting the most appropriate onsite disposal technology using the following seven properties: depth to bedrock, depth to fragipan, depth to seasonally high water table, soil percolation time, slope, surface stoniness, and landscape position. In order to determine the ratings, an appropriate disposal system had to be selected for each mapping unit. Whenever possible the selection of a system followed state regulations (54% of selections). Innovative designs were developed for all other cases. Costs of construction and maintenance (over the design life) were estimated for the best and worst case examples of each soil mapping unit. The dollar costs were indexed over a range of 0 to 106. These numbers were later grouped into five soil potential classes according to the frequency of index rating values and an error estimation. The ratings were compared with the performance of onsite systems on four of the rated soil mapping units. This comparison indicated that the ratings were appropriate, allowed the numerical rating of every soil mapping unit, and could be used as a land use planning tool.

Key Words: interpretations • subsurface sewage • cost ratings • standard system

¹ Paper no. 7113 of the Journal Series of the Pennsylvania Agric. Exp. Stn. Supported by funds provided by the Office of Research and Development (Cooperative Agreement CR807115-01), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Cincinnati, OH. Authorized for publication 5 Feb. 1985.

² Former Graduate Research Assistant, now Soil Scientist, Satterthwaite Associates, Inc., West Chester, PA, Professor of Soil Genesis and Morphology, and Professor of Soil Physics, The Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA.

Received for publication March 8, 1985.

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