THE TEAM
Mark Chase and his wife Trenna are the owners of Cyclone Septic, a septic service and portable sanitation company in Williams, Arizona (population 3,200), a town 60 miles south of the Grand Canyon and located on historic Route 66. Trenna handles the book work; her father, Perry Brown, runs the portable restroom route; and technician Mike Bolen works on the septic side.
COMPANY HISTORY
When Chase retired from a 32-year career as a sanitation worker in Phoenix, he and Trenna moved to Williams to be near family. Anxious to be productive and a contributing member of the community, Chase looked around for something to do and soon found a septic pumping company for sale. In 2020 he bought the company and within a short time gained the confidence of the customers. Then he started growing the business and adding services including portable restrooms. They now have 100 units, many with hand-wash stations. Equipment was bought used and includes various brands.
UNCONVENTIONAL CLIENTELE
While most of Cyclone’s portable sanitation work is for construction projects and special events, the company also has a substantial number of individuals who either need a unit at home as their sole sanitation device or require RV pumping services.
When he started out, Chase hadn’t thought about pumping RVs, but when a guy called and asked about it, he figured it couldn’t be too hard. “So it started with this customer and then just blossomed,” he says. “It just became common knowledge that you call Cyclone Septic if you need your RV pumped. Everything I do is word of mouth; we don’t really advertise.”
Summer is the busy season for RV campers. Some stay in private campgrounds or RV parks that may not have enough sewer hookups. There are also four U.S. Forest Service campgrounds near area lakes. And some RVers camp for free on Forest Service land where there are no facilities. Hunting season is also busy. “We’re in one of the best areas for deer, elk and bear hunting,” Chase says. “Our woods are full of people from all around the United States. A lot of hunters ask us about pumping their RVs. And when they find out we have portable restrooms, they tell us to bring that, too.”
Chase also has a few dozen customers living in a house or RV on a small piece of land they own in the woods. Some are full-time residents, others are vacationers. There are no city services so they have water delivered, get their electricity from a propane generator or solar energy, and use a portable restroom.
“There’s several reasons people do it,” Chase says. “They want the freedom; they want to be away from people; sometimes they’re economically challenged. And sometimes it’s out of necessity because there’s nothing in town to rent and it’s very costly. In Williams we don’t have many rentals. If a house comes up for sale, it’s usually bought by an investor and used as an Airbnb.”
On the other end of the off-grid spectrum are a few entrepreneurs who bought a piece of property, put a prefab tiny home and portable restroom on it, and rent it out to adventure enthusiasts through Airbnb or Vrbo. “They stay busy,” Chase says. “It’s for people who want the wild west experience or people going up to the Grand Canyon.”
KEEPIN’ IT CLEAN
Brown’s service route covers a 45-mile radius on mostly dirt roads and mountainous terrain. Conditions are often windy and, at an elevation of 6,800 feet, winters are cold and snowy. He divides the territory into four sections and does one a day, pumping both portable restrooms and RVs. The service truck is a 2003 Ford F-650 with a 300-gallon waste/150-gallon freshwater Brenner Tank stainless steel slide-in tank and Masport pump. The company uses Walex deodorant products and disposes of waste at the local treatment plant.
Chase had to improvise a procedure for pumping out his first RV and continues to use the same technique. “I told the guy I couldn’t connect to the RV but if he had a five-gallon bucket I could drain it into there, then pump out of the bucket. I could probably get an attachment but this works so well for us that all our trucks carry at least two buckets, even the big septic trucks just in case someone comes out and asks me to pump out their RV. We don’t have to worry about damaging their tanks or their plumbing that way.”
RVers are typically not on a schedule but call for service as needed. Off-grid customers are on a regular schedule, weekly or biweekly. Chase says he tries to keep it affordable but has to consider the high cost of gas. But if money’s tight for someone, he works with them.
“They pay me when they can,” he says. Some pay at the time of service by check or credit card, some are billed. But the Vrbo/Airbnb owners have pushed Chase into the modern era. “These are usually young entrepreneurs and they love to send money through Zelle and Venmo,” he says. “I’m not Mr. Computer but my wife said we’ve got to take it because that’s how people pay these days.”
IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT PUMPING
Although the company is profitable, Chase says he just enjoys being an asset to the community and helping people out. “When somebody’s having a problem, I love being the guy that comes out and fixes it for them,” he says. He recently serviced an RV for a veteran in his late 80s and the man’s wife who had early-stage dementia. He did not charge them. “I said, ‘You’re a veteran, you deserve a break. If it hadn’t been for you and other veterans I probably wouldn’t be able to do what I’m doing today.’ They both cried — and then I started crying.”
Brown also enjoys helping out his customers. “They love him,” Chase says. “They enjoy seeing a friendly face. Customers tell me he’s always smiling, willing to help. That’s just the kind of guy he is, very good-natured. He knows which customers are struggling. He always has a good word and enjoys talking to them. I think that’s important.” It’s not unusual for a customer to offer him cold water, a cup of coffee or other goodies.
Chase says they run into a wide variety of people on the job. “We’ve got some very colorful people we service,” he says. “You’ve got to be, to live off-grid. It’s a tough way to go but some of these people are just pros at it.”
