Soil Investigations & On-site Sewage Assessments

The dominant surficial geology in my region of Prince Edward Island, Canada is glacial till soil, rich in iron, so our mineral soil horizons are typically very reddish-brown in colour. This can make it hard to detect redoximorphic features in the soil profile. Where the soil is seasonally saturated, often all we get for redox are alternating duller and darker shades of red-brown. I am not a soil scientist, I am a civil engineer who practices in the area of on-site sewage treatment and disposal. So over the years, I have had to fill in the gaps in my soil science knowledge through independent study, short courses, and asking questions from soil science professionals when I have the opportunity. I thought I would reach out to some of my LinkedIn groups to see if you might be able to provide some insight on what I am seeing in the following photographs of a soil test pit I recently examined. Note: The photos are of the same area in the test pit. The only difference is that for one I had the flash on (truer to the natural colours) and for the other I did not. The land at this site sloped