One person may not be able to change the world, but it only takes one person to start the process. (C.Lindstrom)

The United States Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service has a nice website where you can obtain information about the soil under and around your home, throughout the town, city, county or state where you live.

It is called Web Soil Survey and is located at: http://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov/app/HomePage.htm (or simply click the address as it has the link built into it.

It does take a few minutes to learn how to use it and waiting for the maps to populate gives just about enough time to fill up the coffee cup.

Here are some samples I did in about an hour. They are focused on the Cambria area but can be replicated with any neighborhood in town. I found it easiest to set the AOI (Area of Interest by Using a street address then zooming either in or out until I defined the area I wanted. Note that definitions and data are also in the packages. The colors red, yellow and green are used to identify how suitable certain land is for certain uses. The definitions of these are available on the written reports, but in general Red means you should not do it there without making some big changes from standard practices, Yellow means you may need to add a few things to make it workable, Green means that standard practices are generally adequate.

Map and Report 1:

Suitability for Dwellings with Basements

Suitability for Dwellings without Basements

Suitability for Small Commercial Buildings

Suitability for Local Roads and Streets

Suitability for Pond and Reservoir Areas (Stormwater Retention Ponds)

Important Information from Virginia Coalition for Open Government.