Published June 2007

Controlling Our Destiny

By Jim Kneiszel (page 32)

Treatment plant helps Oregon’s Best Pots solve disposal challenges and position itself for green growth

As suburban development grew in the beautiful Pacific Northwest over the past three decades, Best Pots Inc. flourished right along with the region. But like many liquid waste haulers, founder Homer Rhodaback grew concerned about future disposal opportunities as the family company entered the new Millennium.

Dumpsites weren’t as big of a concern when he started cleaning portable restrooms in 1977. But tighter restrictions and increased fees at the dawn of the new century encouraged Rhodaback and his son, Chris, to look for a way to limit their reliance on municipal treatment plants for disposal.

For several years, the Rhodabacks — located about 90 miles south of Portland — researched emerging technologies that would allow them to set up their own treatment plant. After weighing the options, the partners committed to setting up a vacuum drum treatment system at their headquarters. They hoped the plant, which opened in 2005, would stabilize disposal costs and free them from the uncertain future of municipal dumping.

TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS

It’s so far, so good, the Rhodaback’s report. Heading into the third year of treating septage and portable restroom waste at their plant, dubbed Eco-Flo, Best Pots has increased its output year-to-year. While the owners have faced challenges associated with start-up and operation of the Alar treatment system, they no longer live in constant fear of losing cost-effective municipal dumping.

“We can control our own destiny,’’ says Chris Rhodaback, 38, the vice president of Best Pots, which operates five companies in the Willamette Valley community of Albany, Ore. “The thing that always bothered me and my dad was getting that call from the city treatment plant saying, ‘You can’t dump here anymore.’ We’d be out of business or have to truck our waste somewhere else. Now we won’t have anybody calling us and telling us what we can’t discharge.’’

That level of security came at a hefty cost, but one that Homer Rhodaback doesn’t regret. The semi-retired company president — while attending the first National Association of Wastewater Transporters Inc./Septage and Grease Trap Waste Treatment Symposium in Ohio last fall — said the company spent about $1 million getting the treatment plant up and running. That was for equipment and heavy fees associated with qualifying to dump treated wastewater into the city sewer.

“It was very, very expensive for us to turn the first wheel, and that’s rough on a small business,’’ Homer Rhodaback said. “You have to plan for growth and plan that what you’re doing is going to give you enough income. There’s a lot of pencil work and a lot of planning, thinking, scratching your head and butterflies.’’

Best Pots is exceeding expectations. The elder Rhodaback said the plant was built on the premise that the company could break even on disposal costs — compared to their municipal options — if they processed about a million gallons a year. Year one saw 1.2 million gallons go through the plant. Last year the total was about 2.5 million. Overall, business doubled in the past three years, Homer Rhodaback says, and the upswing appears to be continuing in 2007, according to Chris Rhodaback.

SO GROWS BEST POTS

The elder Rhodaback was working for another portable sanitation company in the 1970s when he decided to strike out on his own with Best Pots. The business grew steadily as development in the Northwest ramped up. A family firm since the start, the company is controlled by Homer Rhodaback, his wife, Carol, and Chris, who has been working alongside his dad since he was a youngster. Chris’ wife, Cindy, is office manager for Best Pots and Cindy’s mother, Liz Blain, is the general manager for two subsidiary septic firms.

Best Pots now maintains an inventory of 3,500 Satellite Industries restrooms. It is the parent company of A & B Septic Service (acquired several years ago), Valley Septic Service (acquired in 2006), Eco-Flo and Site Locker, a company that delivers storage containers. The businesses are located across the street from each other in an Albany industrial park.

The combined liquid waste companies run a fleet of 21 vacuum trucks, the majority of which are portable sanitation service vehicles, typically Isuzu FRRs and International 4300s, with 800-gallon steel tanks built out by Glendale Welding. Three septic trucks were inherited from the purchased companies. They are two Fords and a Freightliner with 2,400- to 3,800-gallon steel tanks; the builder is unknown. In the past, Chris Rhodaback built out most of the trucks himself.

While portable sanitation has been the company’s heritage and bread and butter, Chris Rhodaback wants to build on a specialty in operation and maintenance of advanced systems (they are a certified O & M provider by the state Department of Environmental Quality). He also wants to continue refining and improving the treatment plant operation.

NUTS AND BOLTS

The septage treatment plant is built around a rotary vacuum filter from Alar Engineering Corp., processing 26,000 to 30,000 gallons of wastewater in batches completed in 8-10 hours. The system processes 3,000 gallons per hour when the batch includes portable restroom waste and up to 5,000 gallons per hour without restroom waste.

The plant is currently processing about three batches per week, running at about 60 percent capacity. It was built to handle ample future growth. Best Pots will continue to process only its waste and doesn’t intend to take waste from other haulers.

Trucks pull into an enclosed dump station, where they leave loads in the 30,000-gallon holding tank. The waste runs through a rotary screen to eliminate large items and two Zoeller pumps convey the load to the drum for processing. When firing up the Alar system, the plant operator precoats the filter with diatomaceous earth and mixes polymers from Aqua Ben Corp. The semi-automatic system utilizes Orenco Systems Inc. control panels.

When the drum builds up 2-4 inches of cake, the septage is introduced. The processed water is discharged into the local sewer system by permit; the company pays for regular testing to ensure the wastewater meets stringent regulations for discharge. The waste is cut off the drum with a knife and conveyed to a container, then hauled to a landfill.

Chris Rhodaback’s ultimate goal is to compost or dry the waste byproduct to end up with a Class A material that can be land-applied freely or sold. The company could package Class A waste as a fertilizer or sell it to industrial buyers who have a use for it.

“We try to reuse as much as we can. It would cost about the same as the landfill, but we’re trying to be earth-friendly,’’ he says. “We’re very conscious about our environment. We have kids who are going to have to deal with more (environmental issues) than we’ll ever deal with.”

Rhodaback says a green approach makes sense, both for personal and business reasons. But he doesn’t classify himself as a radical environmentalist. “We’re cautious about what we do and what chemicals we use and how we use them,’’ he says.

REGULATOR ROADBLOCKS

It’s not always easy being an early adopter to new technologies, and the Best Pots experience is no exception. Homer Rhodaback said securing necessary permits and setting up the equipment to run the plant was sometimes a frustrating and expensive experience. He estimated the process took three years, with $100,000 spent early on in engineering and lab testing. And the company had to send $10,000 with its application for a solid waste permit — money the government would keep, whether or not a permit was issued.

“We have been through the heartaches and headaches of building from square one to getting the plant up and running,’’ he says. “It was scary at the very beginning. I’d wake up one morning and jump out of bed, very excited about it. Then I’d get a phone call and talk to an official or get a new report and then be down at the bottom of the barrel about it. Then in a few days I’d get some good news and be up again. It was a very rocky road.’’

Rhodaback did a lot of math before moving forward on the plan. He said Best Pots was on the small side to expend the capital for a treatment plant. But when disposal costs at the municipal plants reached 10 cents a gallon and the company reached the 1 million gallon mark for annual disposal, the plan made sense.

And as the gallonage continues to rise and municipal disposal fees grow (he said one site now charges 20 cents per gallon), the treatment plant makes more and more sense for Best Pots.

“I think it’s different everywhere you go, but you have to look at your books — what you’re making and what you’re hauling. It does take a sufficient amount of gallons and money to support a plant,’’ Homer Rhodaback says.

After attending the NAWT Septage Symposium, the Rhodabacks would tell pumpers who have reasonable municipal disposal fees (in the 5-cent per gallon range) to tread lightly when considering a plant. Homer Rhodaback says a small hauler with annual revenues of $120,000 isn’t going to justify building a plant, but a hauler moving 1-3 million gallons and paying higher dumping fees might start looking at it. He says there may be a future in several haulers in a region banding together to build a cooperative plant when municipal dumping options evaporate.

He also said pumpers who consider a treatment plant should be mechanically inclined and enjoy tinkering with the system. Chris Rhodaback did a lot of the plumbing work involved in building the plant, and both men said the plant requires more tweaking and monitoring than they expected.

Still, Homer Rhodaback is glad they got into the treatment business.

“I’ve always been one to jump on the bandwagon first and take a chance,’’ he says. “With a whole bunch of factors, we decided to jump into the pot and go for it with the plant. And it’s grown much faster than we predicted."