Don't treat soil like dirt!
Karen Mancl
  

Ohio's soil natural resource is diverse and precious. Ohio's soil supports food production, homes and roadways, and purifies water. However, too many people take soil  for granted and think they can build a home or grow food wherever they like. People get angry and blame the soil when they cannot do what they want on their land. Bad soils do not exist. People, however, make bad decisions about how to utilize Ohio's soil natural resource.

If you are planning to build a home out in the country, first check to see what is needed to safely treat and dispose of of the household wastewater. More and more home builders are surprised to learn that a home site is not suited for septic system.

Safe treatment and disposal of wastewater requires a deep layer of unsaturated, permeable soil. It is not possible to stand on the land surface and know if the soil is suited for treating wastewater. A soils professional needs t dig into the soil to assess how deep and permeable it is. The soils professional must also examine the landscape to judge how water moves across and through the soil.

Soil and site assessment involves a series of steps. Soils professionals first study local soil information from the County soil survey. They next conduct a visual assessment of the site to identify landscape features. Based on the clues they see from the visual assessment they begin probing the soil to delineate soil resources on the lot. Finally they excavate soil borings and pits to prepare profile descriptions of the major soils on the lot.

Based on this information a sanitarian or engineer can match the soil resource to appropriate waste treatment technology. Treatment technologies include leaching trenches, mound systems and drip and spray irrigation systems.

Do not disturb
The most important thing for a landowner to remember is to guard against disturbing the soil. Once soil is disturbed stripping off the topsoil, excavation, or covering it with fill material, it will take decades for the soil to recover so that it can be used for an onsite wastewater treatment system.

To find out more about evaluating soil ask at your local OSU Extension Office fo fact sheet AEX 742 (Soil Evaluation of Home Septic) or Extension Bulletin 905 (Soil and Site Evaluation for Onsite Wastewater Treatment). To preview these and other publications on onsite wastewater treatment check the website for the OSU Soil Environment Technology Learning Lab (SETLL), which is setll.osu.edu The website also lists Ohio soils professionals who are members of the Association of Ohio Pedologists.

Karen Mancl, Professor and Extension Water Quality Specialist, can be reached at 614-292-6007 or mancl.1@osu.edu.