Class Acts

NAWT meeting at the Pumper & Cleaner Expo is the stage for major industry awards

Major liquid waste industry awards were delivered at a meeting of the National Association of Wastewater Transporters during the Pumper & Cleaner Environmental Expo International Feb. 27.

NAWT’s breakfast membership meeting included award ceremonies honoring NAWT’s Man of the Year, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency official Bill Hasselkus, and the Ralph Macchio Lifetime Achievement Award, which was awarded posthumously to New Mexico pumper Rocky Horton.

The awards were presented by NAWT President Tom Frank, COLE Publishing co-founder Bob Kendall and Macchio.

MAN OF THE YEAR

At one point, it would have seemed highly unlikely that Hasselkus would win an award from an association of private waste haulers. As the 42-year veteran of government regulation recalls it, his introduction to pumping contractors at the Pumper & Cleaner Expo was contentious.

“The first pumper show that I came to was eight or nine years ago and they were picketing us because they thought we were encouraging big utilities to take the role of the pumpers,’’ Hasselkus recalled. The pumping community’s skepticism of the EPA was based, Hasselkus said, on one misstatement he made about haulers in an issue of Pumper.

“They seized on that and decided we were trying to put the pumpers out of business,’’ he said. “We had to learn to communicate better.’’ Hasselkus said it was never the agency’s intent to reduce the important role played by liquid waste carriers. He only wanted the government to become a partner of haulers to improve upon safe and professional handling of septic waste.

TRAINING GRANTS

Hasselkus and Tom Ferrero, executive director of NAWT, said the groups have become highly effective partners, and in doing so have watched the industry raise its level of professional service and its image. Over the years, the EPA, NAWT and 11 other national organizations have forged a Memorandum of Understanding in support of onsite septic systems that serve approximately 25 percent of the country’s population and 37 percent of new home development.

In recent years, Hasselkus has been an advocate for the pumping community at EPA as the agency issued training grants to NAWT for inspection and vacuum truck training. Those programs have taken off and become self-sustaining NAWT offerings, while both groups work together to strengthen the industry. And NAWT took a step further with the vacuum truck training during the Pumper & Cleaner Expo, where it was filmed for an online version to be offered soon.

Ferrero said pumpers have overcome their initial skepticism of the EPA, and much of that is because of Hasselkus.

“The first couple of years were bumpy with the EPA. But Bill was a down-to-earth person, supportive of the industry and the individuals in the industry,’’ Ferrero said. “He appreciates that NAWT wants to work to improve the industry and realizes that training is important.’’

Ferrero said that in states where regulations require pumper training, contractors are now clamoring for the NAWT programs. These mandates have made states like Arizona and New Mexico a hotbed for the sessions.

APPRECIATES AWARD

“But the industry is still slow (to adapt). When we go to a place where there are no mandates, nobody comes. But little by little, we’re better off than we were five years ago,’’ he said.

Hasselkus said NAWT approaches its programs the right way and succeeds in making the case for private industry doing a good job at providing an essential service.

“NAWT is one of the best professional organizations I have ever been associated with. I’ve gotten a lot of awards, but this one I appreciate as much or more than any of them because I know where it came from and the caliber of the people here,’’ he said.

His praise goes beyond NAWT and to the entire pumping community. Hasselkus enjoys his annual trip to the Expo not just to talk environmental policy, but to meet the workers who handle the business end of a vacuum hose. He says they’re constantly working to build on industry professionalism and fight negative perceptions about the job.

“It’s hard to think of a bunch of more dedicated and hardworking people than the pumpers,’’ he said. “It’s a hard business and that’s a tough job.’’

Ferrero said Hasselkus continues to be a proponent for pumper training, coming to NAWT meetings and fighting misperceptions about the difficulty of working with a giant agency like the EPA.

“His favorite line is, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help you.’ … And he actually does,’’ Ferrero said.

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

The Ralph Macchio Lifetime Achievement Award is usually cause for a rousing celebration. But bestowing the honor this year was a bittersweet task. That’s because the recipient of the 2009 award, Rocky Horton, owner of Mighty Vac Pumping Services, Clovis, N.M., died in a work-related accident.

On Dec. 23, 2007, Horton responded to a plumbing emergency, volunteering his services to an 80-year-old friend whose water heater sprang a leak. While cleaning up the spill on the early morning call, Horton reached for a falling lamp and was electrocuted. The accident took the life of the dedicated 44-year-old pumper and left a widow, Suzahn, and two young children, Rockell, 9, and Ruger, 7.

“Rocky was a people person and he loved everybody. If you met him, he was your friend for life,’’ said Brent Inman, Horton’s brother-in-law. “He never charged a church for a job or a pastor for washing his car. If it was a God thing, it was a free thing.’’

STARTED WITH CAR WASH

Inman and his father, Marlon Inman, collected the Lifetime Achievement Award statue at the Expo, as well as a financial prize that will go toward an education fund for Horton’s children.

In the mid-1990s, Horton bought his first vacuum truck to pump out the pits at his car wash in Clovis, a city of about 32,000 at the Texas-New Mexico border, 100 miles west of Lubbock, Texas. In 1996, his small pumping operation was featured in Pumper, with Horton in the magazine’s cover photo. Later on, Horton added portable restrooms to his offerings, and both Brent and Marlon Inman joined the company.

“He was an entrepreneur. He wasn’t afraid to jump out and take the opportunities,’’ Brent Inman said. “He was a real go-getter and could see things.’’

After Horton was killed, the Inmans and Suzahn Horton soldiered on with the business. The family has attended the Expo several times over the years and intends to keep operating.

Horton’s family has relied on their faith to get through the tragedy and move forward, Inman explained.

“God knows when we are born and he knows when our time is coming,’’ he said. “It just so happens that was Rocky’s time. We may never understand that, but that’s OK.’’

NAWT BOARD RE-ELECTED

The slate of NAWT officers was re-elected for 2009. They are Tom Frank of Ohio, president; Roger Winter of Ontario, vice president; Mitch Okerstrom of Minnesota, treasurer; and Ferrero, secretary.



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