Even though Paul and Cindy Edwards were old hands at processing septage, grease trap waste and other industrial wastewater, they found it valuable to travel across the country from their Tucson, Ariz., home a year ago to attend the first National Association of Wastewater Trans-porters Septage/Grease Trap Waste Treatment Symposium in Ohio.
And while the owners of Busy D Pumping are confident their pretreatment system will serve their business and other pumpers in the area for years to come, they are considering attending the second NAWT symposium scheduled for Sept. 12-13 near Harrisburg, Pa.
Why would they devote the time and travel expenses to an issue they already have ample firsthand knowledge about? Because, Paul Edwards says, learning about wastewater processing doesn’t end when the local county begins accepting your treated wastewater into the sewer system. In fact, the education about disposal issues never ends.
“There’s always someone trying to do something new, and you can learn from it,’’ says Edwards. “It was a long trip for us, but we thought it was very good. We got to see how people from other parts of the country do things.’’
The couple has come a long way since they bought a one-man pumping operation 17 years ago and built it into a diversified business in a competitive market. Busy D has 12 employees, five vacuum trucks and a belt press processing plant on several acres in the growing Southwest.
Busy D does more processing than pumping right now, handling its own waste in addition to waste from four septage pumping companies and three portable restroom contractors. Of its own pumping customers, 75 percent are commercial accounts, mostly grease trap and car wash waste jobs.
After the dewatering process, wastewater flows into the local sewer system and solids are disposed at a local landfill.
While a pretreatment plant wasn’t part of the company’s early business plan, the car wash wastewater, specifically, nudged them into processing. Today, with a big part of its business in handling waste from other pumpers, Edwards expects that the ongoing NAWT symposiums will be important for him to attend.
Pumper: Explain the catalyst that started you processing your own wastewater?
Edwards: Car wash waste started the whole thing. (Disposal sites) didn’t want the solids in it and the landfill didn’t want the water from it. We did have one landfill taking the waste, but the transportation charges and disposal fees were getting so high that we weren’t making any money, and our customers were getting upset at us for raising our fees.
Pumper: What options did you explore for pretreating wastewater?
Edwards: We tried three different processes before we got to the belt press. We started out before anybody was doing anything like this, using a gravity separator. It works pretty well, but it’s pretty slow. Then we went to a rotary precoat vacuum filter and found that didn’t work well for us at all. Then we didn’t have good luck with a plate-and-frame press. We bought the belt press from a California company that isn’t in business anymore. It was a father and son machine shop, and if I need a part, they can still get it for me. They’ve done a very nice job.
Pumper: What did you learn by trying several different dewatering technologies?
Edwards: Whoever tells you a system will run by itself and you don’t have to watch it, that’s not true. I’ve got ours to where it pretty much runs itself, but the waste changes when the tank level drops. If you want it to run at the maximum efficiency, you still have to watch it and tweak the machine as it’s running.
Pumper: What’s the key move a pumper has to make before choosing a processing option?
Edwards: You need to check with whoever regulates your waste to see if they will approve of the process. You can buy all the equipment in the world, but they may not grant you a permit to operate it. I’m really good at working with industrial wastewater control, the Pima County IWC.
Pumper: How did you establish and maintain a positive relationship with local regulators?
Edwards: It was very simple. I’d worked with them since I started pumping, and we’ve enjoyed an excellent relationship. I was willing to work with them and not buck the system. If there were changes in the regulations, I always tried to make it a positive thing rather than another hurdle. If changes come along, maybe it’s not what you want to do, but if you turn it around and look at it from a positive perspective, it usually goes much better, and there is always a positive outcome from it.
Pumper: Can pumping professionals everywhere expect to have to deal with the processing issue in the future?
Edwards: Absolutely. There’s going to have to be some type of pretreatment plants that are privately owned to handle the types of wastes coming out of the stream. We’re even finding out now that the waste coming out of the septic tanks of the baby boom generation is more toxic than it was a generation before because of all the medications.
Pumper: Are you saying that processing waste is becoming the pumping industry’s responsibility instead of local municipalities?
Edwards: I know the wastewater treatment plants have had a hard time keeping up and trying to expand their plants. So grease trap, car wash and septic tank waste is not something they want to deal with. And I guess (pumpers) have seen the opportunity to make a profit processing the waste, so maybe it’s just up to the industry to take it on. I know that since the industry has decided to take it on in Tucson, the municipalities have backed off on taking care of it. We can do it better than they can.
Pumper: Is it tough to handle both pumping and processing and do the best job possible in both areas?
Edwards: Doing both is a real challenge. You have to surround yourself with the right kind of people to do what you need to get done. It’s definitely changed from the mom and pop who go out and pump the tank and dump it somewhere and come home. It won’t go that way anymore. I’m always looking for ways to make our business continue to grow, so I think the pumping part of the business helps the processing part, and vice-versa. I think they go together.
Pumper: So this was the right move for you?
Edwards: Absolutely, because it allowed us to grow and to keep our existing customers happy. And this keeps us well aware of what’s going on in the industry. We all know it’s getting harder and harder to get rid of waste, so we need to continually become more educated and improve our ways of processing waste.
Pumper: What would you tell pumpers trying to decide whether or not to travel to the NAWT symposium next month?
Edwards: It’s a good place to start. It definitely isn’t the only place to go, but it might give you the right connections to get where you want to go.
