Our small septic pumping company recently had one of those “teachable moments” occur while out in the field. I hope our unfortunate experience can serve to help other pumpers prepare for unfore-seen accidents.

It was the second day in service for our newest vacuum truck and we had just finished pumping our third 1,000-gallon septic tank. The truck has an aluminum 3,400-gallon waste/200-gallon freshwater tank. The freshwater compartment has a sight tube showing the water level, while the waste compartment has four tempered glass sight windows set at 1,000, 1,500, 2,000 and 2,500 gallons.

 

THERE SHE BLOWS

We had finished cleaning the septic tank and my co-worker Mitchell Padilla turned off the truck and was in the cab writing up the paperwork while I picked up the freshwater hose and the hand tools. Suddenly, Mitchell heard a “hissing” sound, immediately followed by a crack as the bottom glass sight window shattered. Septage immediately started escaping through the 4-inch opening.

The torrent hit the bracket that the sight window retaining screw is threaded through and split into two opposing streams. One stream had such force it pushed three of the 3-inch suction hoses off the driver’s side hose tray, while the other stream hit the backside of the hoses where they were held captive by the hose bracket on the back of the tank.

Mitchell shouted that we had “a problem” and I needed to come quickly. (He is a master of understatement!) I stood for a few seconds trying to figure out what to do. The only thing I could think of was to do my best imitation of the little Dutch boy with his finger in the dike. I closed my raingear to the top button, pulled on the hood, jumped on the rear bumper and shoved both my gloved hands over the 4-inch hole.

By bracing myself against the bumper and the retaining screw bracket I was able to stop the flow. I then told Mitchell to find something to cover the hole. He grabbed a brick, which was too thick to fit inside the bracket. I covered the hole again until he returned with a short length of 2-by-4 scrap wood, which covered all but about 3/8 inch of the opening. Another narrow section of wood then covered the gap. I wedged a pry bar under the bracket to hold the wood securely, then found another scrap of wood for a more secure fit.

By this time, the truck had dropped about 900 gallons of septage onto the customer’s yard. I used my cellphone to contact the Department of Environmental Quality onsite office to report the incident. The DEQ representative said I needed to clean up the spilled septage as quickly as possible and sanitize the area. They called the state spill response line and told me to contact the local health department.

 

INFORMED THE HOMEOWNER

We quickly arranged for Mitchell to be picked up and taken back to the shop, where he loaded our second vacuum truck with lime and a duckbill attachment for the vacuum hose. While he was getting the truck, I contacted the homeowner and explained what had happened, who we had contacted, what the cleanup procedure would be and the estimated timeframes.

He was understanding and appreciated being informed and said he trusted my judgment as to whether to use lime or bleach water to sanitize the area. I told him I preferred to use the lime since we could see where the material had been applied versus using bleach water.

When Mitchell arrived with the second truck, we vacuumed the entire side yard twice to remove any surface material that had spilled from the truck. Then we spread lime over the entire spill area, opened a top manway on the disabled truck and vacuumed its contents into the other truck.

As we applied the lime, the local health official returned my phone call and I explained what had happened, who we had called and what we had done to clean up the spill. He confirmed we followed proper procedures, but said he needed to inspect the site to confirm work was com-pleted satisfactorily.

Later, the local health inspector told me he couldn’t believe how fast and thorough the cleanup had been. Had he not seen the lime on the ground, he said he wouldn’t have known the location of the spill. He also confirmed talking to the homeowner and informing him the spill had been properly cleaned up.

 

A DAY LATER

The next day I called the DEQ rep I had spoken to during the emergency, explaining the procedures followed and that the cleanup was inspected and approved. The DEQ person asked a number of questions about the cause of the spill, if this equipment failure occurred often and who manufactured the part that had failed. After answering his questions he asked for a written narrative for the file due to the unusual circumstances.

While the situation is one I never want to experience again, I did learn valuable lessons that could benefit any septic service company. A main point is that pumpers should have a plan in place to address spills before an accident like this happens. Consider these tips to help respond to the unexpected:

Carry spare critical parts on each truck. Had I had a spare sight glass and pressure disk or a properly sized plug, the amount spilled would have been greatly reduced.

Keep emergency contact numbers handy. In our case, within a few days I had small laminated cards made for each employee and taped to the dash of each truck, listing my cell number, our office number, the spill response number (to be used if a waterway is impacted), the state DEQ number and the local health department number.

Stock effective protective work gear. We work in full waterproof Gore-Tex rain suits during the fall, winter and spring and waterproof leggings during the summer. In summer, a complete set of protective gear is kept in each truck. Good vinyl or waterproof gloves should be mandatory for all pumping jobs with spare gloves carried on the truck at all times. Protective gear for each truck should include eye protection, eye rinse solution and antibacterial hand sanitizer.

Have two people on each truck. I know for many pumpers this is cost prohibitive, but once you see the time savings and increased work performed by having two people on the truck, you may rethink the idea. Having two people on the job reduces lifting injuries, saves wear and tear on equipment and, most importantly, can save a life in an emergency. While I was able to plug the leak with my hands, I would have been a hostage to the situation without a helper to find materials to block the hole, respond with the second truck and help secure the spill site.

Have equipment available to clean up a spill. It was fortunate that we just put a new pump truck in service and had the second truck to respond. If you only have one truck, consider contacting another pumper in the area and work out an emergency reciprocity program or research outside contractors who respond to emergency cleanup calls. We were able to get the cleanup process started within 30 minutes by having the necessary tools and supplies on hand.

Develop an emergency action plan. Train your employees and drill them on the plan and how to implement it in the case of an emergency.

Keep notes and records of an emergency response. Note what happened, when it happened, who was called and what was said. This is valuable when reconstructing the situation for regulators, insurance companies and legal counsel should it come to that. Review the incident with employees as soon as you get back to the shop. Each party involved will have a slightly different story based on their involvement, actions taken, visual perspectives, etc. This helps build a more complete picture of the situation.

Develop a good relationship with regulators. A history of running quality equipment, high levels of competency and honesty in your dealings with local and state regulators can be a tremendous help in an emergency. Also, do not wait to make initial emergency calls. The quicker you let regulators know of a problem the better. Do not try to cover up a serious situation and hope that it never comes to light. Irresponsible action will greatly compound the gravity and consequences.

 

THE OUTCOME

For the record, within 24 hours of our spill incident, we contacted the supplier of the sight glass and asked if they had previous cases where a glass broke. No one at the supplier, the distributor or the truck assembly shop had ever heard of a new sight glass shattering like that. Still, we decided to replace the lowest sight glass on both trucks with metal plugs rather than tempered glass windows. We also replaced the remaining three sight windows on the truck with new glass windows as a precaution against the possibility of a bad batch of windows coming out of the manufacturing plant.