Eric Larson is perfectly able to design and install onsite treatment systems. He still does that work, but it’s not where he sees his business growing.
“We are building ourselves into our future,” says Larson, co-owner of Septic Check Inc. in Milaca, Minn. “We recognize the greater revenue that installations generate, and we are grateful for it, but our company’s future is in system management. We are building that future with every system we or others install.”
From Milaca, in central Minne-sota, the entire state is within a three- to four-hour drive of Septic Check’s headquarters. “This location lets us install and service systems in a 250-mile radius,” says Larson, who with co-owners Shelley Larson (his wife) and Brian Koski are three of the four full-time employees. In the business since 1995, Eric and Shelley founded Septic Check in 2004.
“We specialize in difficult sites and systems with high-strength waste,” Larson says. Those include small lots with failing systems, small lots never tested with modern site evaluation methods, failed drainfields that were themselves replacements for failed absorption areas, sites with limited soil depth or high seasonal water tables, and just plain tiny lots.
And then there are even bigger challenges. “In rural Minnesota, we encounter group camps and restaurants that generate atypical waste streams, far stronger than those from single-family dwellings,” Larson says. “High-strength waste brings a different set of challenges to the receiving systems.
Top-down approach
In the early days of the business, Larson focused on repairs and inspections. He soon learned about soil fracturing. Uncertain whether it was appropriate, he investigated and found that it was legitimate and often helpful. The company started offering the service and performing minor repairs, such as fixing or replacing access covers and risers, or adding them where none existed. That made up most of the service menu.
That changed as Larson took a personal interest in onsite treatment quality. “One day we visited four systems,” he recalls.
“Each had problems, and for each a repair strategy had been proposed. In every case, we felt the proposed action did not properly address the problem. I was troubled when I spoke to landowners who had exhausted two or three absorption areas, and the best ‘solution’ they were offered was a new one like the old one.”
That led the company into system design, which in turn led to discovery of various advanced treatment devices and systems. Once the company was designing systems, it was natural to add system installation and maintenance as lines of business.
A broader menu
Septic Check is authorized to install and maintain a wide range of treatment devices, including AdvanTex trickling filters manufactured by Orenco, FAST units from Bio-Microbics Inc., Puraflo peat media filters from Bord na Mona, Multi-Flo and Nayadic advanced treatment units from Consolidated Treatment Systems, and several different UV disinfection devices.
Working across a state as big as Minnesota, “The soils we encounter vary greatly, and there is no shortage of those challenging sites,” says Larson. The variety of systems in Septic Check’s tool box enables installations on small sites and on sites with shallower soils, whether predominately clay, glacial till, or sandy loam. Advanced technology brings long-term success to the system and the property owner, and long-term relationships with property owners are where this company sees its future.
At the same time, impervious, watertight tanks are an essential component, especially on sites where the tank may be placed in an area with high seasonal groundwater.
The company uses some plastic and fiberglass tanks and chooses concrete tanks made by successful manufacturers with track records for quality. “Watertight tanks have eliminated a common source of system distress — surface and subsurface water that enters the tankage and overloads the system,” Larson says.
Growth brings change
In past years, the company has designed as many as 150 systems in-house. Last year, that number dropped to about 50. From time to time, and to meet demand, Septic Check subcontracts design work. That allows the staff to focus on work that generates more dollars or is closer to the company’s march toward a focus on management services. System inspection is also in decline, by design (it now accounts for only 10 percent of revenue).
“As our management segment grows, installation work will decline as well,” says Larson. But, that decline will not lead to a yard sale of excavation equipment. “We have a conservative approach to capital investments,” he says. “We buy only the equipment we can keep busy on a regular basis. When we need specialty or large machines, we rent them or subcontract that portion of the job. Controlling overhead frees resources and lessens pressure to take on less-profitable jobs simply to keep a machine busy.
The owners have taken a similar approach to a vacuum truck. “One of us is a properly credentialed vacuum truck operator, but we do not own a vacuum truck,” Larson notes. “Because of the language in our state’s regulations, we need this license to cover some of the work we do.” The company subcontracts pumping service.
The modest roster of company-owned equipment includes a 2005 Chevy Silverado HD 2500 pickup, a 1997 Chevy 3500 service truck, a 1994 Ford dump truck, a 277 Cat multi-terrain loader, Kobelco SK60-III and 135 excavators, a 16-foot trailer, and a 26-foot flatbed trailer.
While managing machinery is not a heavy load, managing human resources is a top priority. Here, too, the goal is to use in-house talent to the fullest. In addition to the three owners, Jerod DeBoer works full-time as a general laborer, and is being groomed to become a designer and a maintenance technician. As needed, the company calls on four part-time employees for casual labor.
Shelley Larson’s roles are diverse. As office manager, she has multiple daily customer, employee, subcontractor and vendor contacts. Perhaps most important, yet least formal, is her role in processing and sharing the knowledge she gains with her team.
Qualifying customers
The greatest opportunity for Septic Check in managing systems lies in caring for those installed by others. Many installers prefer not to provide management services. In Larson’s eyes, not every system owner is a suitable management services customer. “We use a checklist to screen potential customers,” he says.
Septic Check wants customers who will participate in management. “Our best customer is an informed, knowledgeable individual who wants to keep his system in good working order,” Larson observes. He calls systems that use advanced technologies “performance systems.”
A typical Septic Check customer could have spent less on a system but chose to spend more to gain a specific advantage: cleaner effluent, longer life, a commitment to green living, or a need to make an undersized or shallow-soil site suitable. Regardless of the reason, the owner shares Septic Check’s commitment to the system’s success.
The company does more than its share to educate homeowners, buyers, lakeshore associations and anyone who will listen. “Word-of-mouth marketing is the company’s greatest promotional tool,” Larson believes. Of course, the company’s billboard does its part to get the word out.
Focusing on details
Co-owner Koski, a licensed treatment plant operator, is a key player in the day-to-day operation, monitoring maintenance and management of the advanced treatment units Septic Check is contracted to service. “It is not unusual to see Brian looking through a microscope on a jobsite,” chuckles Larson. He uses the microscope to check the health of bacteria that should be thriving in the treatment units.
When Koski sees problems, he asks, “Why?” Here, too, homeowners are essential, both as detectives helping identify changes in system use and as an implementer of solutions. “When we tell them, some customers are shocked to learn that the residuals from their antidepressant medications have a stimulating effect on the bacteria in their onsite system,” Koski notes.
While helping customers operate their systems effectively, Larson also works on behalf of the onsite industry. He is active in the Minne-sota Onsite Wastewater Association (MOWA) and other local, state and national groups. He recently testified on Minnesota regulatory proposals put forward by the Minne-sota Pollution Control Agency.
Larson is part of a committee that creates Need to Know (N2K) knowledge banks, which become the basis for designing licensing tests. The N2K resource also becomes the foundation for training offered by MOWA and the University of Minnesota.
On the national level, Larson is a contractor-reviewer for the Consortium of Institutes for Decentralized Wastewater Treatment. Whether on a jobsite, in a classroom, testifying at a government meeting or speaking to property managers or homeowners, Larson is committed to higher standards. He sees higher standards for the industry, for himself and for his business as the key to growth and prosperity.
He sums it up nicely: “We are all about value.”
