septic_service_operations v1.0.0

name: septic_service_operations description: Run a septic pumping and service business day to day: intake questions that sort a sewage backup emergency from a routine pump, route days built around tank locations and vacuum truck capacity, a per property record that carries tank size, compartments, baffles, effluent filter, and measured sludge and scum history, state and county reporting and approved disposal for every load, and a reminder cycle that books the next pump before the tank fails. Use when running or setting up a septic service operation, triaging a septic call, planning a pumping route, writing a septic inspection or pumping report, setting a pumping interval, or auditing a septic company's records and compliance paperwork.

Septic Service Operations

Purpose

Give a septic shop owner, dispatcher, or agent running the office a complete operating method for pumping and service work: every call sorted by what is actually happening underground, routes built around where tanks sit and how much the truck holds, one living record per property that makes the next visit faster and the interval honest, disposal and reporting closed the same day, and reminders that fill future route days before a tank backs up into a house. Written for shops from one truck to a small fleet, with or without field service software. Generic dispatch software treats a septic job like any work order. This skill exists because a septic job carries facts a work order does not: tank size, baffle state, filter state, measured solids, and a regulated load that has to land somewhere approved.

Workflow

1. Triage every call with the septic questions, not a generic priority guess. Work the intake list in references/intake-and-records.md in order: backup or surfacing first, alarm and mechanical involvement second, whole house versus one fixture third, then last pump, tank size, tank location, early failure signs, water load, and who gets the report and who pays. Score it with python3 scripts/septic.py triage --sewage-inside, adding flags such as --alarm, --slow, --unknown-location, --mechanical, and --real-estate as they apply. P1 goes out the same day, P2 inside 24 hours, P3 on the next route day in its zone with a full inspection attached, P4 fills its zone cluster.
2. Pull the property record before promising anything. One record per property holds tank size, material, compartments, lid location notes, riser state, inlet and outlet baffle or tee state, effluent filter state, system type, service history with measured sludge and scum, and the default approved disposal site. Fields and the reason each one earns its place are in references/intake-and-records.md. Check a record with python3 scripts/septic.py record assets/property-record.json. No record means the first visit creates one, with locating and measuring time priced in. A customer guess about tank size never overwrites a measured record.
3. Build route days by zone and by truck capacity, in that order. Cluster stops by zone, sequence priorities inside the cluster, and add tank gallons against truck capacity as you assign. When the next tank would overflow the truck, the disposal trip to the approved site goes on the route before that stop, not as a surprise midday. Plan it with python3 scripts/septic.py route assets/route-week.json and read the flagged stops first: an oversized tank, a missing location, a mechanical system with parts needs. Hold one flex slot on every route day for the backup call that has not come in yet.
4. Work the site in record order. Measure before pumping: liquid level, sludge inches, scum inches. Decide the pump from the measurements with python3 scripts/septic.py pump --sludge-in 14 --scum-in 7 --liquid-depth 48 --scum-to-outlet 4 --sludge-to-outlet 9, then inspect tank, lids, and risers, inlet and outlet baffles or tees, effluent filter, and where fitted the distribution box and the drainfield surface. Test pumps, floats, alarms, and aerators on mechanical systems and write the result down. Record gallons actually pumped and the disposal site the load went to. The full on site record is in references/intake-and-records.md.
5. Close the paperwork the same day. Service record saved to the property, disposal line written, truck log reconciled against gallons pumped, and any state or county report filed or queued on the office board with its deadline and an owner. Reporting duties, forms, and approved disposal routes differ by state and often by county, so the shop keeps a one page regulator sheet per service area built from its own regulator, covering licensing, report forms and deadlines, approved sites, per load record fields, and spill reporting duty. The federal floor for domestic septage disposal is EPA 40 CFR Part 503. Detail in references/intake-and-records.md.
6. Set the next dates from measurements, then run reminders. Inspection cadence: conventional systems at least every 3 years, alternative and mechanical systems generally once a year, usually under a service contract. Pumping: typically every 3 to 5 years, set per property from tank size, occupants, water use, garbage disposal use, and the measured solids history, with the on site measurement overriding any calendar estimate. Estimate with python3 scripts/septic.py due --last-inspection 2023-05-14 --last-pump 2023-05-14 --tank-gallons 1000 --occupants 4. Each week, work every property due inside the next 60 days: call, book it onto a thin day in its zone, and update the record with anything the customer reports, a new disposal, a new occupant, a repair still outstanding.
7. Review the week like the worked example. references/route-week.md walks one full week: a Monday backup, capacity forced disposal trip, a transaction inspection with a report deadline, the Thursday reminder run, and the Friday record and disposal reconciliation. In the weekly review check four things: emergencies answered same day, records complete on every visit, disposal gallons reconciling, and reports filed on time. Fix the intake or record step that failed, not just the week that hurt.

Output Contract

Deliver, for each period worked:

• The triage list: every call scored P1 to P4 from the intake questions, with the flags that drove the score and the water use and safety advice given on emergency calls.
• The route plan: stops clustered by zone in run order, tank gallons against truck capacity per leg, disposal trips placed before they are needed, flagged stops with the action taken, and the flex slot held for emergencies.
• The property records: one per property served, complete on the required fields, with the visit's measurements, findings, gallons pumped, and disposal site added to the history.
• The compliance close: disposal lines reconciled against the truck log, and every required state or county report filed or queued with a deadline and an owner, read off the shop's regulator sheet.
• The reminder run: properties due inside 60 days, who was contacted, what booked and onto which route day, and every record update a customer report produced.

For a setup or audit engagement, deliver the intake script, the property record template, the regulator sheet per service area, the route building rules, and the reminder cadence, plus the list of gaps found in the existing records.

Operating Rules

1. A tank is a confined space. Routine work happens from the surface. Never send anyone into a tank as a normal service step. Any entry is a confined space job under the applicable safety rules: ventilation, testing for oxygen, hydrogen sulfide, and combustible gas, a lifeline, and attendants on the surface. Hydrogen sulfide deadens the sense of smell fast, so odor is never the test. No smoking, sparks, or flames around an open tank.
2. Measurements decide the pump, the calendar only estimates it. Pump when the bottom of the scum layer is within 6 inches of the bottom of the outlet, when the top of the sludge layer is within 12 inches of the outlet, or when sludge and scum together pass 25 percent of the liquid depth. Those are the EPA thresholds. A tank under all three gets its measurements recorded and its next inspection set, not a pump sold on habit.
3. A backup is a system signal, not just a full tank. Sewage inside or surfacing outside gets same day response, advice to cut water use, and a check past the tank: filter, baffles, liquid level, and the drainfield. Pumping a tank whose field is failing buys days, and the report says so plainly instead of calling the job fixed.
4. The record is the business. Tank facts live on the property record, not in a driver's memory or a job note. A visit that ends without measurements, baffle and filter state, gallons, and disposal site written down is an unfinished visit, and the Friday check exists to catch it.
5. Every load lands somewhere approved, and the paper proves it. Pumped septage goes only to a site the shop's regulator sheet lists: a treatment plant that accepts it, a permitted facility, or an approved land application site run under the Part 503 duties that apply to it. No approved site on the sheet, no pumping that day. Gallons pumped and gallons discharged reconcile weekly.
6. State and county rules are read from the regulator, never quoted from memory. Licensing, report forms, deadlines, and spill duties change and differ across a county line. This skill sets the method and the federal floor. The shop's regulator sheet, refreshed from the regulator's own current publications, carries the local facts.
7. Reminders sell the next pump honestly. A reminder cites the property's own last date and measured history, states the interval as an estimate the next inspection confirms, and never uses a backup scare the record does not support. A customer who declines gets the date noted and the next reminder set, not pressure.
8. Emergencies displace routine work, and displaced customers hear it from the shop first. When a P1 takes a route slot, every moved customer gets a call with a new window before the truck rolls. Silence is how a good emergency response still loses a routine customer.