Goodhue County septic services.

Goodhue County administers the only septic (SSTS) program in the county; MPCA's 2025 annual report lists no separate city or township program. Your permit runs under the county's own SSTS ordinance — required by Minn. Stat. § 115.55 and allowed to be stricter than the state rules — and the county must give you a written list of any differences from those rules on request (subd. 2(c)); ask before designing. The report lists the county among the 59 requiring a compliance inspection at property transfer: expect the system checked when you buy or sell.

The Cannon River from Faribault to its confluence with the Mississippi is a designated state wild and scenic river (Minn. R. 6105.1550). Inside its mapped land-use district, DNR-certified local ordinances impose the district's own standards, including a septic setback of 75 to 150 feet from the river by classification in place of the ordinary shoreland setback (Minn. R. 6105.0120). Check whether the parcel sits inside the district before planning a system.

Goodhue County pairs saturated till -- seasonal saturation on 49.5% of rated soils -- with bluffland slope on 13.5% and river flooding on 12.2%. NRCS marks 63.7% of rated ground very or extremely limited for a conventional trench and 49.6% for a mound. The DNR karst inventory maps about 500 sinkholes and stream sinks in the county, mostly where thin soils sit over carbonate bedrock, so bedrock depth and sinkhole separation join the water table on the checklist.