Pumping Portable Toilets Under Kentucky's Septage Rules

What the regulation covers

902 KAR 10:170 covers septic tank servicing in Kentucky, and it names material pumped from portable toilets as domestic septage, so a portable unit's pumping is inside its scope.

The regulation sets out who may service septic tanks and how. It covers operator requirements, licensing, the operation of vehicles and equipment, inspection and enforcement. Its definition of domestic septage includes material from portable toilets, which places those pump-outs inside its rules.

The customer does not need to know every clause. The customer needs to know that the operator who arrives must be the one the regulation licenses, and that the operator can say so.

The licence and what to ask for

Ask the operator for the licence it holds under the regulation, the vehicle it uses and the disposal site it takes the load to, and expect a clear answer to each.

The licence is the operator's to hold and to show. A customer can ask for the number and the name on the licence before the booking, and an operator who cannot show it should not be booked.

The customer should also ask where the load goes. A disposal site permitted under the Kentucky rules for septage is the right answer, and the visit record names it.

• The licence held under 902 KAR 10:170
• The vehicle and equipment the truck uses
• The permitted disposal site for the load
• The record kept for each visit

Scheduling pump-outs around a crowd

Pump-outs are timed to the number of users, the length of the event and the tank size, so the visit comes before the tank is full rather than after it.

A tank fills faster under a crowd than under a single user, and faster on a hot day. The schedule is set for the busiest days, with a visit before the tank reaches the point where it becomes a problem.

For a long job the schedule is fixed for the length of the job and reviewed when the crew size changes.

Records and what the customer keeps

Each visit is recorded against the unit, and the record is available to the customer or the organiser on request, which is useful for a permit file or a venue's own check.

The record shows the unit, the date, the work done and the disposal site. An organiser who needs it for a Metro file can attach it, and a venue can ask for it at the end of the event.

A record is also the simplest way to show that a visit happened when a question about a smell or a full unit is raised.

Keeping the record of a long job

On a long job the pump-out record is kept as a running file, with each visit, each disposal site and each change of schedule recorded in order.

A running file for a job of several months shows the trail from the first visit to the last. The file is handed over at the end of the job or given to the office on request, and it names each licensed operator who carried out a visit.

A change of operator during the job is recorded with the date, so the file shows who was responsible for each load.