Sometimes it’s hard to see how far you’ve come until you take a second to turn around and look behind you. When I became the executive director of the National Association of Wastewater Transporters three years ago, the industry was going through some changes. Regulations and other outside influences were forcing pumpers to accept their environmental and public health responsibilities or lose their business to sanitary sewers. While we had new tools — different types of onsite systems and the scientific knowledge to understand soil conditions — we lacked the training to use them.
Today, NAWT offers training and certification in operating vacuum trucks, inspecting onsite systems for buy-sell agreements, installing onsite systems (prep course for the National Environmental Health Association Certified Installer of Onsite Wastewater Treatment Systems credential exam), and operating and maintaining onsite systems. We developed service contracts or management programs, and preach the value of properly maintaining onsite systems.
NOT IN MY BACK YARD
Without NAWT’s involvement, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency would have outlawed land application of septage in 1993. Instead, we made the agency aware of our issues. It did some extensive research on septage and land application, then developed reasonable regulations. However, land application remains an explosive issue in many communities. In response, NAWT developed its Septage/Grease Trap Waste Treatment Symposium to teach pumpers alternate ways to handle the material and do it correctly. Those with treatment facilities say the plants are an asset to their business, creating opportunities that otherwise would not exist.
NAWT has advanced from being unrecognized by the EPA, other regulatory agencies and academia to a valued member in the EPA Memorandum of Understanding Partnership. We convinced the EPA to recognize individual companies as Responsible Management Entities. Thanks to members stepping up to the plate, making the effort in time and money to educate themselves and their employees, working with local regulators and developing management plans for their customers, NAWT has convinced our MOU partners that we are ready to accept and solve the challenges ahead.
POTHOLES ON THE ROAD TO SUCCESS
At the local level, working with regulators who have their heads in the sand remains a hurdle. However, hope is on the horizon. As of April, the Association of State and Interstate Water Pollution Control Administrators and the State Onsite Regulators Association joined the MOU, enabling NAWT to communicate its message more clearly and easily to regulators.
Undoubtedly, the biggest hurdle remains those service providers unwilling to change, working like they have for the last 30 or 40 years. They are the ones who ask, “Why do I need training? What am I going to learn? I’ve done this all my life and don’t have to prove anything to anybody.” Such attitudes won’t budge until they perish from attrition or the winds of change blow off the blinders.
On that day, outsiders will notice that a competitor has four new trucks and eight guys working for him. He doesn’t dig in ditches anymore, he’s charging more and he has half of your customers. That’s when outsiders will ask, “What’s going on here? What am I doing wrong?” It’s going to take a while, though, because some are only 25 years old, but have inherited an older generation’s mindset.
Professional pumpers no longer just pump tanks. Anybody can do that. Today, professional pumpers run full-service companies. They install onsite systems, offer maintenance contracts, operate 24/7, inspect systems for buy-sell agreements, identify failing systems and bring them to some level of compliance, educate homeowners, provide quality service, and give customers what they want. And, oh yes, they are the highest priced and the busiest people in the industry.
