Skip to content
ParcelOps
Start free
All questions

What are the soils under this site?

A soil answer is a set of map units, each with a name, its component soils, and the interpretations the survey publishes for building, septic, and agriculture. ParcelOps returns the units under the point or the parcel with those interpretations attached and the survey area they came from. Read a rating of severe limitations as a reason to order a percolation test or a geotechnical boring, not as the result of one: the survey is mapped at a scale where a single unit can hold soils that behave differently across one lot.

Map units under a point or a parcel, at soil survey scale.

Where this answer comes from.

Each of these has its own page naming the office that publishes it, how often it updates, and what it cannot answer. Rebuilt from the ParcelOps source directory on September 9, 2026.

  • USDA Soils

    Soil survey data from the USDA for land, building, farming, and pre-purchase research.

  • USGS Elevation

    Ground elevation for US properties and land, from the US Geological Survey.

  • NLCD 2021 Point Land Cover

    Sample one lower-48 point from the verified 30 m MRLC NLCD 2021 WMS layer.

Where this stops.

The part a search result will not tell you, and the part worth reading before this answer goes into a decision.

  • Cut, fill, and construction have already changed the soil on developed sites, and the survey still describes what was mapped there.
  • Septic suitability is decided by the county or state health authority from a field test. A survey rating is context for that test, not a substitute.
  • Survey vintage varies by area and some surveys are decades old. The answer carries the survey area so the age is visible.

Questions people ask alongside this one.

  • What census tract is this address in?

    Federal program designations are published by census tract, not by address. How to resolve an address to its state, county, tract, and block codes, and why the vintage matters.

  • Is this property in a flood zone?

    A flood zone answer is a letter read off a specific FEMA map panel with an effective date. What each zone means, and why outside a zone is not the same as safe.

  • Are there wetlands on this property?

    The national wetlands inventory is a map layer compiled from imagery, not a jurisdictional determination. What the classification codes mean and where the layer stops.

  • Is this property in a wildfire risk area?

    There is no national wildfire zone the way there is a flood zone. What the modeled risk metrics at a point actually describe, and what decides one house.

  • Is there a dam near this property?

    Listed dams near a point with hazard class and condition rating. Hazard class describes consequence, not likelihood, and proximity to a dam is not inundation risk.

  • Have earthquakes been recorded near this site?

    The published earthquake catalog around a coordinate, with magnitude, depth, and date. Why a quiet catalog is a statement about the instrument record, not about hazard.

The lanes this question belongs to.

A lane page lists every source that kind of work reads, not only the ones behind this question, and states where the whole lane stops.

Land researchData center siting

Run it on a property you already know.

The free plan includes 50 tool calls for the life of the account. They never expire and never refill, and there is no credit card. Ask this question about an address whose answer you can check.

Start freeRead another question