ELIMSPORT - Change is what keeps businesses going, and look no further than Foresman Septic Service and Excavating, for proof.
The company has invested about $500,000 on what is essentially a large tank that can hold filtered sewage, trucked in from customer's septic tanks. The investment also covered other items the company needed to purchase for the project.
With the Chesapeake Bay Initiative, many homeowners with septic tanks will experience an increase in their bills because septic companies may have to pay more to use the treatment facilities.
Jerry and Jim Foresman took treatment into their own hands ,and by next month are expecting to have a filter system in place to begin using the holding tank.
They believe that in the long run, this will allow customers to be able to pay the same rates they are paying now.
Jerry said he got the idea for the project when he talk to Tom Mirrors, the biosolids coordinator for the Department of Environmental Protection for Lycoming County.
Jerry was worried about how the Chesapeake Bay Initiative would affect their business, and Mirrors explained how they could take their own approach to treatment.
So after some consideration, Jim and Jerry hired Mid-Penn Engineering to build the holding tank, which took about 20 days for them to finish.
The waste, that will eventually be filtered, can be obtained with the help of three vacuum trucks the company owns. It is then trucked to where the tank is located, on Sulphur Springs Road in Elimsport.
There, the waste is filtered three times and lime is added to it to kill any bacteria.
The lime neutralizes any pathogens in the waste so it is considered a rodent vector, which means there is nothing living in it and wild animals are not attracted to it.
The new material also doesn't give off any odor, according to Jerry.
When the waste is filtered all solids are taken from it.
Jerry said some interesting things are found in the waste, such as spoons and Matchbox cars. The solids are then put into sealed containers and taken to the landfill.
The tank holds up to 500,000 gallons and is really insuring the future of the Foresman Septic Service and Excavating business.
"We're looking 50 years into the future," Jim said. "If my grandchildren want to run this business, when they are older, I want it to still be here."
Farmers can even use the filtered- lime filled byproduct to fertilize their fields, but they need to have tests done on their land.
The tests analyze things such as proximity to streams, permeability of the soil and the tests look for sink holes near the area.
Jim and Jerry are eventually hoping to by able to sell the byproduct to farmers.
The company is also looking into being able to accept septic waste from other companies too.
