“Very poorly drained” soil: Water stands at or above the surface much of the year
Depressions and flats, often former wetland, drained artificially at some point in the last 150 years. The water table is at or near the surface unless something is actively removing water.
What it means for a basement
Houses with basements in this soil exist mostly because they were built before anyone modelled the consequence. Treat drainage as permanent infrastructure with a maintenance schedule. Ask specifically what happens during a 24-hour power outage.
Where the USDA definition comes from
Drainage class is assigned per soil component in the national soil survey and describes frequency and duration of wet periods under conditions similar to those under which the soil formed. It is not a measurement taken at your house; it is a classification of a mapped soil body. That distinction is why we phrase every county page as a statement about soil, never as a statement about your basement.
USDA NRCS, National Soil Survey Handbook, part 618. Delivered per map unit in SSURGO.
Counties where “very poorly drained” is the dominant class
0 counties in our coverage.
- No county in our coverage has this as its dominant class.
Page data updated