The team
Waste Management of Wisconsin’s Port-O-Let division is managed by Dennis Lindquist from offices in Germantown, Wis. The division consists of 15 people, including Lindquist, full-time mechanic Rob Herriges and lead driver Ralph Tuttle. They operate 11 vacuum trucks, one flatbed delivery truck and 11 delivery trailers of various sizes. Port-O-Let has 4,000 Satellite Industries Tufway portable restrooms.
Waste Management entered the portable restroom business in Wisconsin in 1985 and since then has been providing services to the Experimental Aircraft Association’s AirVenture fly-in at Oshkosh, about 80 miles north of the Port-O-Let headquarters. The PRO provides services for large events throughout southeastern Wisconsin, including Milwaukee’s Summer-fest and all the ethnic festivals, PGA golf events and Alpine Valley music theater, but its biggest task, year in and year out, is the fly-in.
THE MAIN EVENT
AirVenture was held July 28-Aug. 3 in 2008 at the festival’s permanent grounds, which include, for the days of the event, the world’s busiest airport. “I like to say there are special events and then there is EAA,” says Lindquist. “It’s the world’s largest convention. There is nothing like it.” The numbers are impressive: 12,000 airplanes, 700,000 visitors, 1,100 portable restrooms, eight upscale restroom trailers, six portable showers and 1.4 million gallons of waste water pumped in one week. One other number is equally impressive: one. That’s the number of written complaints EAA gets each year about sanitation services at the event, Lindquist says.
The event is always a study in contrast, from homebuilt aircraft and biplanes to Concorde supersonic jets; from World War II fighters and bombers to state-of-the-art military craft from around the world. It draws air enthusiasts of every stripe, from regular folks to astronauts; famous aviators such as Gen. Chuck Yeager to celebrities such as actor/pilot Harrison Ford.
