I just received an email from the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) indicating that the soil survey data for Zapata County, Texas has been updated. We do some environmental work in Zapata County, and the soils data is an important component in some of the GIS analyses there. Zapata County is unique in that it is one of the few counties in the United States that never had a soil survey book created for it, and because of that, it is one of the last counties to have GIS-based soils data. The update message I received went like this:
Dear Soil Data Mart subscriber,
Some or all of the data for soil survey area TX505 has been updated.
Survey Area Symbol: TX505
Survey Area Name: Zapata County, Texas
Publication Status: Tabular and Spatial Data Currently AvailableSurvey Area Version: 10
Survey Area Version Established: 2/12/2009 1:00:26 PMTabular Data Version: 10
Tabular Data Version Established: 2/12/2009 1:00:26 PM
Tabular Data Version Updated?: YesSpatial Data Version: 4
Spatial Data Version Established: 8/22/2008 7:39:49 AM
Spatial Data Version Updated?: NoFGDC Metadata Updated?: Yes
Looking at the data in ArcMap, about 75% of the county now has data available. The data is available in Access 2002 format, easily read as a personal geodatabase. Keep working on it NRCS!