Grease Trap and Septic Cleaning Companies Rip Off Restaurants, Homeowner’s and Tax Payers- Here’s How

Some Central Florida grease trap and septic pumping companies are ripping off their restaurant customers, homeowners and the tax payers of Central Florida by illegally dumping partially treated waste, grease and raw sewage. We interviewed Rick Fender, the Florida State Certified Plumbing Contractor of Cloud 9 Services, Inc., a legitimate grease and septic pumping contractor located in Orlando. We asked him to explain how this is accomplished, and how this affects everyone.
Grease Trap and Septic Cleaning Companies

Orlando, Florida (PRWEB) September 30, 2012 -- Some Central Florida grease trap and septic pumping companies are ripping off their restaurant customers, homeowners and the tax payers of Central Florida by illegally dumping partially treated waste, grease and raw sewage. We interviewed Rick Fender, the Certified Plumbing Contractor of Cloud 9 Services, a legitimate grease and septic pumping contractor located in Orlando. We asked him to explain how this is accomplished, and how this affects everyone.

“There are a few bad apples in the septic and grease pumping business that break the law in order to make a quick buck,” explained Fender. “The proper way to handle the grease pumped from a restaurant’s grease trap is to thoroughly clean the grease and debris from the grease trap, and then transport it to a processing center for legal disposal. Septic tanks are cleaned in the same manner.”

“Many homeowners and restaurateurs don’t realize a pumping company pays between $.09 and $.13 per gallon to the processing facility to dispose of the waste in an environmentally safe and legal manner,” says Fender.

According to Fender, “Cloud 9 Services has been in the septic and grease trap pumping business in Orlando for 6 years. In that time I’ve heard of the tricks for illegal dumping that some of our competition performs to avoid dump fees. Some illegal dumping has been caught on tape and shown on WFTV and the web, but that is just the tip of the iceberg.”

The motivation behind this illegal dumping activity is money. Mr. Fender explains if you pump a 900 gallon septic tank, for a fee of $250.00 you might net $20.00 to $50.00 per tank pump-out. Fender said, “Expenses incurred would be labor plus taxes, insurance and benefits; dump fees, at $90.00; diesel fuel, at $4.00 per gallon; the cost of the purchase and maintenance of the $130,000.00 pumper truck, and insurance and other overhead. The only legal way to make it cost effective for a pumping company, is to hope that the pumper technician finds another issue with the system such as a clogged sewer line or filter, a bad pump, a cracked tank or perhaps a bad drainfield. This is precisely why other companies turn to illegal dumping.”

Fender indicated most of the illegal dumping is hidden from the enforcement officers and the public in the following ways:

  • 1. An unscrupulous pumping contractor uses his typical 4,000 gallon tanker truck to clean several septic tanks, filling his truck's tank. The cost to dump this septic tank waste would be $400.00. However, he skips the processing plant, and goes to pump a grease trap at a local restaurant. He throws the 3” pumper suction line (which also is the discharge line) into the grease trap and reverses the pump, forcing the waste from the his truck’s tank through the trap into the municipality’s sewer line. This results in a savings of the $400 dump charge for the liquid waste. If questioned, the technician tells the customer that he is just back-flushing the trap to give the customer a cleaner trap. Once the 4,000 gallons of septic waste has been discharged through the grease trap, the unethical technician reverses the pump again and vacuums what grease is remaining in the trap, resulting in 1,200 gallons of grease being placed into his truck’s tank. In most municipalities, this grease must be accounted for by means of a manifest. Therefore, in this example the grease trap was 1,200 gallons, and at $.13 per gallon to dump the grease from the truck's tank at a processing center, the dishonest pumper company pays only $156.00 for dump fees on a what should have been a total of 5,200 gallons of discharge.
     
  • 2. Unscrupulous pumping contractors cheat the system, and cost taxpayers more money, by illegally dumping into lift stations and manholes, which connect into the municipality’s sewer system, to get rid of the waste and grease without having to pay a dump fee.
     
  • 3. Fender has been told some illegal pumping contractors have even installed manholes, on their property, with sewer lines connected directly into the County sewer line, in order to avoid dump fees. When this grease and waste reaches the municipality’s lines, the grease and trash clog those lines requiring the municipality (its taxpayers) to pay to clean those lines more frequently. Further, when the grease and waste finally reaches the sewer treatment plants, it throws their delicate treatment balance off, decreasing the efficiency of the plant and costing taxpayers even more money.

About Cloud 9 Services

Cloud 9 Services, Inc. is a legal septic tank, grease trap and lift station cleaning and repair contractor. Cloud 9 holds several Florida State Certified Contractor’s licenses including Plumbing, Underground Utility and Excavation and General. Cloud 9 Services, Inc., located at 1201 West Jackson Street in downtown Orlando, FL, was founded by Rick Fender in 2001. Cloud 9 also specializes in commercial sewer repair, lift station cleaning and maintenance, storm and sanitary system pipe cleaning and repair. Call Cloud 9 Services 24/7 at 407-481-2750

Contact :

Rick Fender
Cloud 9 Services, Inc.
(407) 481-2750

Find more local septic tank services at : http://septictankpumpservice.com/

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