To Perc, or Not to Perc. Is That the Right Question?
No, not anymore. In South Carolina, the percolation, or perc, test went out of style in the late 1970's right along with leisure suits and discotheques. The old perc test was not very accurate in evaluating how well suited a particular site would be for a septic system. It would tell you how fast water that was poured into a hole would drain out of that hole. If the test was done during the dry season, the water most likely would drain out fast enough, especially in the coastal zone, to pass the test. However, if it was done during the wet season, when the water table was closer to the ground surface, the site would probably fail the test. So the end result might be a site that had passed the test during the dry season ended up with a septic system that failed to work properly during the wet season. So just like leisure suits, the perc test deserved to be a thing of the past.
Read Property Suitability to see how a soil and site evaluation, conducted by DHEC professionals, is used to determine the suitablility of a property for a septic system.