A decade on the other side of losing its owner and primary operator, Mark Southwick, A 1st Rate Pumping Service continues to pump only nonhazardous waste. Its commercial business consists of servicing about 300 restaurant grease traps annually. Industrial sludge pumpouts from car washes and food processing plants number about one location a day with two or three loads per call. Residential business is about 125 septic systems pumped yearly. Percentage-wise, this breaks out to grease traps comprising about 50 percent of annual gross billings, processing sludge about 26 percent, mud/grit pumping about 12 percent, and septic also 12 percent.As
