In Dave Gustafson’s onsite treatment training classes, you can count on at least three things.

You’ll get a quality education in building and maintaining systems that treat wastewater effectively for the long term. You’ll get it with a generous dose of humor. And you’ll have no trouble hearing him from a seat in the back row.

As a member of the University of Minnesota’s Onsite Sewage Treatment Program team, Gustafson, P.E., trains thousands of onsite professionals every year. He brings his enthusiastic teaching style to seminars covering soils, installation, operation and maintenance, and inspection, visiting some 40 states over a career that spans three decades.

Along the way, he has helped develop training materials now used nationwide for certifications, helped small Minnesota communities cost-effectively solve wastewater treatment problems, advocated for the role of technology in onsite treatment and fostered communication between onsite professionals and state and local regulators. For these and other accomplishments, he received the 2018 Ralph Macchio Lifetime Achievement Award during a Water & Wastewater Equipment, Treatment & Transport (WWETT) Show meeting of the National Association of Wastewater Technicians.

“This is a really great industry to work in,” Gustafson says. “Every day is a little different. You really can’t get bored. Just when you think you’ve figured everything out, there’s something new. I’m thankful for and proud of the relationships I’ve built with other professionals in the industry. They’re an important part of who I am.”

Spitting time

Gustafson, a Twin Cities native, took a unique path through college. He played football for four years at Northwestern College (now called the University of Northwestern-St. Paul), at various times starting at all five positions on the offensive line and becoming team captain as a senior. After each fall semester, he transferred to the University of Minnesota for the spring session to study civil engineering.

After earning his degree in 1984, he joined the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency as an engineer working mainly on funding for small wastewater treatment plants. He later transferred to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency wastewater operator training group and there got involved with onsite training. In that capacity, he worked with Roger Machmeier and Jim Anderson, architects of the University of Minnesota onsite training program.

After Machmeier retired in about 1990, Gustafson joined the university program as the Extension engineer handling onsite training. He also joined an onsite technical advisory committee, where he forged connections with contractors who helped him gain real-world experience with systems.

“I worked really hard at getting out and dealing with professionals in the field,” he says. “It was a great way to learn about how systems actually functioned and how to solve problems.”

In the mid-1990s he began taking his training session on the road, and in 1997 he teamed up with Anderson in a training partnership that lasted until Anderson retired in 2017. At present, Gustafson’s key colleagues in the Minnesota program are Sara Heger, researcher, and Dan Wheeler, soil scientist.

On the road

The heavy roadwork for Gustafson and Anderson started with all-day, large-group seminars during the Pumper & Cleaner Environmental Expo (now called the WWETT Show). It was there Gustafson connected with members of the NAWT board of directors, including Tom Ferrero, Tim Frank and Ralph Macchio, who helped broaden his perspective.

“I really appreciate all the real-life experience they brought,” Gustafson says. “A big part of my development was connecting with professionals like those in other parts of the country who were dealing with the same issues and coming up with different ways — sometimes better, sometimes not as good — for dealing with them.

“Those national connections, being able to cross-pollinate and learn from things that go well and don’t go well in other locations, that’s a benefit that people often don’t recognize. You tend to get caught up in what’s going on in your area, how you do it and what your rules say; and that can close off the box you’re working in.”

Apart from the WWETT Show, Gustafson and Anderson have been regular trainers in Arizona and Ohio and sporadically in other states. “I work in some states a little more regularly because I’m active in their certification programs,” Gustafson says. “In other states, I come as an invited guest. I tend to bring different perspectives; that’s one thing groups seem to appreciate.”

He travels for training about 160 days per year. That means addressing about 2,000 people per year in Minnesota alone, up to 700 at the WWETT Show, and a total of 600 to 700 more at a dozen to 15 events scattered around the country.

Practical presentation

His approach to training emphasizes real-world examples and often contains a healthy dose of math: “I tend to force a little extra math because it helps bring home the science around how we make decisions about our systems. For nonscientists, sometimes the math helps them connect the dots a little better.

“The other big thing is that I try to make the step from the science to what professionals see — why things look the way they do and why some things are important even though they may not appear to be. I try to make the material really apply to what they are working on.”

That includes emphasizing the critical importance of maintenance and reporting on the outcomes of maintenance: “Sometimes our industry misses opportunities to share successes. We work a day in the field and perform service at five houses. Four of the systems are working great and one of them isn’t; we tend to focus on the one that’s broken instead of the four successes.”

Other points of emphasis include accurately setting floats in pump tanks so that systems are not under- or overloaded, measuring voltage to pumps to make sure they are operating properly, and measuring wastewater pH to help troubleshoot problems, such as where users may be overusing chemical cleaners. “It’s useful to have a tool like that to identify homeowners who are creating problems for themselves and to connect with what is causing the issue,” Gustafson says. “Those kinds of things make a big difference.”  

It’s all presented in a serious, yet lighthearted manner. “The first comment I hear from attendees is that I’m loud; I project,” Gustafson observes. “The second comment is that I tend to be a little unexpected and infuse some humor into the discussion. I find that if you’re laughing a little bit, things tend to sink in a little bit more. I also want to be technically clear and accurate. So I try to walk a line: the technical applied with a taste of humor.”

It's about treatment

On the technical side, Gustafson emphasizes there’s more to a successful system than making sure the toilet flushes and the sewage goes away: “We need to make sure our systems are actually going to treat the wastewater. That was the theme Machmeier started with in 1974, and here in Minnesota that’s a big theme we continue to work through.

“An understanding of the relationship between site characteristics and sewage treatment allows professionals to make sure the systems they install are not going to create problems in the natural environment and are going to be part of the solution to developing those places where people want to live, such as the lakes in Minnesota and Wisconsin and the mountain vistas in the West.

“These places may not have the best soils for onsite systems, so we need to build some things into our systems that will enable proper treatment. That may mean pumping the effluent a little ways up the hill to where the soils are better or using pressure distribution to spread the sewage out. It’s about understanding that we need to match the system to the site so that people can enjoy living there. The other thing is that all systems need to be taken care of, so we make sure our customers get the maximum life out of them.”

Applying technology

Technology plays a role in many systems, and here Gustafson sees a need to make selections with site characteristics in mind: “We’ve got an abundance of choices. Not every technology, be it aerobic tanks or recirculating filters, will be the right answer for every property. We need to evaluate properties and choose the technology that fits best.

“Part of the right choice is what’s going to be the most affordable. Treatment is the first decision, and the second choice is what it costs to install the system and keep it working. That’s the place where the industry is going to learn the most in the next 10 years: What is the real economy around these different technologies?”

Cost was a big factor about 10 years ago when Gustafson and colleagues worked with a few small Minnesota communities that faced numerous septic system failures but could not afford centralized wastewater collections and treatment systems. One of those communities, in the southern part of the state, took an innovative approach by using a mix of cluster and individual systems.

“It was a project where people went through and looked at the available technologies and made multiple choices that ultimately served the community better,” Gustafson says. “It showed that with a little bit of upfront planning, it’s possible to create an affordable, site-specific solution that allows the integration of multiple technologies.”

People business

Behind the technology are people, and Gustafson is gratified to work with other industry experts, as well as the people he trains each year. He helped develop the Inspector Training Program for NAWT: “I still think that is a quality program, and it’s an industry standard on proper point-of-sale inspections.”

He also takes pride in his work with the Consortium of Institutes for Decentralized Wastewater Treatment, developing training materials for high-strength wastewater treatment and system operation and maintenance that are now used for certification by NAWT and by a number of states. He cites Bruce Lesikar of Texas A&M University, George Loomis of the University of Rhode Island and Bill Stuth of Nibbler as key collaborators. “It’s people like that who motivate me to share knowledge that helps contractors in the field to be profitable and put in quality systems for their customers,” he says.

His trainees themselves also inspire his respect: “Education is a choice, and it’s the top people in the industry who make that choice. It’s really difficult to run a small business in America. The people I’m training on the ins and outs of wastewater are really sharp. I meet people who are running really efficient, profitable businesses.

“The small-business owners and the equipment manufacturers appreciate what’s going on in the industry, and they’re working hard to give customers the best service they can. That keeps it exciting and fresh for me.”

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Bringing regulators on board

It’s not just installers, service people and inspectors who need training in onsite wastewater treatment. Regulators from state agencies and county health departments do, too.

“When I look at that side of the industry, I see many younger professionals who don’t have a lot of experience,” says Dave Gustafson, P.E., of the University of Minnesota onsite program. “That is where education could be helpful.

“They come out of college excited about protecting the environment, and I think sometimes they feel protecting the environment means saying no. If both sides come together in training, they can gain some appreciation for each other. They can meet in a nonthreatening situation and talk through some of the issues both sides have.”

Regulators are always invited to Gustafson’s classes in Minnesota, and in fact, the state requires them to take the training. “I train regulators here and across the U.S.,” Gustafson says. “I find it to be really helpful for them. Part of that is creating mutual respect so the installers appreciate that the regulators have a job to do and the regulators can understand how their job fits in with what the onsite professionals are doing.

“It’s important for the respect to go both ways — that can help make the industry a better place. If the regulations and the work being done match effectively, that is also the best for our customers.”