Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: All right, Steve, I appreciate your time coming out here. We're at the OHCI conference talking to vendors and park owners. And so we just kind of want to learn a little bit about what you have and how it could be relevant to other RV park owners. In our case, for builders, you know, somebody wanting to build a park. Because everybody wants to build a park.
[00:00:14] Speaker B: So, sure. No, this is a great space for us. We're actually a manufacturer of wastewater treatment systems. We're located in Greensboro, North Carolina.
[00:00:22] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:00:23] Speaker B: And we're here because, you know, when you look at the RV park and campground situation, most of it, if not all of it, is off the beaten path. So anything that's not served by municipal sewer, that's where we can be a resource.
[00:00:34] Speaker A: Okay, so do you have, like, alternative systems?
[00:00:37] Speaker B: We do. That's what we specialize in. If somebody has conventional septic, we say go that route because that's the least expensive. But when you need some type of specialized alternative treatment, that's where we can come in and be that resource. Okay.
[00:00:49] Speaker A: Because I'm building just as a contractor, 156site park, and these guys on 18 acres, they're like, what's my yield? And they were trying to yield as much as possible, and they just did two. Was it two? I forget what systems they did, but I have heard there's a lot of different alternative, like, systems I don't even know about that are. What are they?
[00:01:07] Speaker B: Well, there's so many different. There's passive media, there's package plants, there's ibbr. There's a number of systems that are out there. We have about seven different systems that we handle. Okay. So our goal is to not take a preconceived notion of what a site needs. First thing we look at when talking to any park owner is what's the site like? What are the requirements there? Have they done soil work? Because you got to collect it, treat it, then you got to get rid of it. That's the toughest part of it. How much land do you have and what's the method that you have to do? The dispersal of the affluent. So we take all these factors into play. Each jurisdiction in every state and county is a little bit different. So you're going to have a metric in terms of gallons per day per site.
You know, we'd multiply that. If you've got 156.
[00:01:54] Speaker A: Yeah, North Carolina was like 100 gallons per day or something.
[00:01:57] Speaker B: Yeah, some of them. Some of them are 50. Some are 75, some are higher.
[00:02:00] Speaker A: 50 is logical to me.
[00:02:01] Speaker B: But for a campground, we think 50 makes all kinds of sense. But as you move up the scale, as you get to, you know, a RV park, that people are going to be there on a longer basis. As you get to a tiny home park glamping, everything's a little bit different from that requirement. And then we. We do a lot of manufactured housing as well. And that's got a whole different metric because that's true residential. And that'll be 250 to 400 gallons per day, depending upon the location.
[00:02:27] Speaker A: So what are some situations where somebody would need to call you? Because, like, a lot of times you can do a conventional septic. Would it be scenarios where there's not as much acreage as they would like, so they would need a different type system for you?
[00:02:38] Speaker B: We'd like to say that coming in early is when we need to be there. The two big expenses that anybody's going to have in a park is the acquisition of the park and then the infrastructure in that park. So doing that planning early, making sure that we're engaged with their professional engineer and their staff. We're not an engineering firm, but we have engineers on staff, so we're an adjunct to working with that professional group.
[00:03:00] Speaker A: So you can get you a survey, get you the proposed plan, and then you probably need some soil tests first.
[00:03:07] Speaker B: Soil test is really important. Exactly.
[00:03:09] Speaker A: And somebody can just go and do that and go whip that up pretty quick.
[00:03:11] Speaker B: Yeah. That'll give us the. Getting that plate, the property, the soil test. That's a really great first step. Yeah. And we don't need to have an engineered design to get it started, but that certainly helps. Pretty or pretty early on. Yeah.
[00:03:23] Speaker A: We need to get an idea. What are we talking here?
[00:03:25] Speaker B: Here's the concept of what we're trying to achieve. Yeah. Because every park owner is looking like, how do they maximize revenue from their park? Which means how many sites can they fit into that park? But when you're doing the development piece of it, Looking at that soil work, all soils are not created equal. Right. So you can put.
[00:03:41] Speaker A: There's tiger stripes in there.
[00:03:43] Speaker B: Yeah. You can put a site for a tent or a campground at one location. But you want to make sure you reserve where the good soils are for the dispersal piece of it, and that's where that soil work comes back into play.
[00:03:54] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:03:54] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:03:55] Speaker A: We do a lot of excavation. It's crazy how tricky it can be. Just like, oh, this beautiful dirt, and then it's like it's hard clay, and it's not Going to perfect at all, you know.
[00:04:02] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, we know. It's weird pockets and it always amazes me that, you know, and I think because there's a lot of emotion behind the space in terms of folks want to get involved because it's a cool thing to do. Yeah. You know, so sometimes they don't ask all these questions. And that's where we try to come in as early as we can, create as much awareness for who we are. We do a lot of hand holding, Q and a piece of it. Hopefully it leads to business. A lot of times it doesn't. But we want to be that trusted advisor for any of our clients, whether they're an engineering firm, a builder, an owner, operator, whoever that person may be. That's where we want to come in.
[00:04:37] Speaker A: Okay, so what are some other examples? Because my builder mind is thinking, like we said, if they were a little bit short on acreage and they needed to have a different system to maximize the little bit of acreage. What are some other examples? Just terrible soil, I'm trying to think here.
[00:04:50] Speaker B: Well, yeah, I mean it's the soil really controls it. But we've got systems that can be more compact. And for campgrounds, it all depends. Are you going to do a, you know, for each site? You know, campgrounds typically may have a cluster type of effect, so you don't need as much from a density point of view. So then how do you collect it? Yeah, and so that's what we look at. What's that layout going to be and what's the requirement again, as you go upscale, shall we say, in terms of what that unit looks like? The longer the stay, the more requirement of having that fixed collection at each particular site or pad. Yeah, but when it's a campground, you can have a bathhouse, you can have stations, outhouses, those type of things, whatever they might be, you still need to collect it and treat it somewhere. So that's where we can develop that and we can cluster it for a group of sites that's we're looking at that layout. How far away they're going to be, what's the collection system need to look like? And then how do we tie that
[00:05:44] Speaker A: collection, split up systems or not, or do one big one?
[00:05:47] Speaker B: Yeah. And I know you're down in Texas, so you've got the 5,000 gallon per day issue, so try to stay below that. But if you got to go above it, nobody wants to have an operator. But at the same time, if you have to, you have to.
[00:05:59] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:06:00] Speaker B: And that means you've got a bigger park, so that's fine too. You know, figure out how do you build appropriately for each condition.
[00:06:05] Speaker A: They really don't like it. So I think what I've seen is everybody just, hey, we have 20 acres now. We have seven, seven and six acres.
[00:06:12] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:06:12] Speaker A: And three systems.
[00:06:14] Speaker B: I don't think they like the parcel effect. They want to see what. What system are you going to build for the entire property to serve it properly. Yeah, yeah.
[00:06:21] Speaker A: I think they get away with it with have multiple interests or something.
[00:06:24] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:06:24] Speaker A: But you got to do what you got to do sometimes.
[00:06:26] Speaker B: Right? Right. Yeah. And we try again, as I say, to come in, look at each unique site based on the merits of that site, based on the conditions of that site.
We typically will come back to an owner operator with several options. And it can be a compact collection system. If you've got enough land. That could be one that's got a little bit more dispersal. It's all a series of tanks so sized properly to handle the effluent that's coming out of there.
[00:06:52] Speaker A: Well, I like the idea of having a contact for, hey, we got. This might be a weird one. So we could use some pros on it, because like you said, a lot of times, you just line up your dosing tank and you do a conventional deal, whether it's spray or leach. But I've seen a lot already in the past couple years.
[00:07:07] Speaker B: Yeah. If the soils are good, too. We're not only the treatment system. We've got a company, geoflow, that we own that does drip dispersal. So again, with good soils, that's a great way to go. Because that could be put into a common area. As long as it's not a parking lot of people aren't parking on it. That can be used for a recreational field or that type of thing.
[00:07:25] Speaker A: That's we're doing on that 156. Site one is to have a lift station, leaving the tanks going way over here. Because there was just kind of an open green space. So that how they packed it in there.
[00:07:35] Speaker B: And obviously the easiest ones are greenfield, because you come in with a blank slate and they get the good planning done. Yeah, we get a lot of existing parks that may need a retrofit. We get a lot of expansion type of activity. Yeah.
[00:07:46] Speaker A: So I can see that in expansion. Because you're like, hey, there was a plan. We want to add some more sites, but we're gonna have to get creative.
[00:07:51] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. I've got 50 sites here. I want to add another 50 over here. What do I need to make that happen. Yeah.
[00:07:56] Speaker A: How can I?
[00:07:57] Speaker B: But that's not unusual. We see that all the time.
Yeah. Yeah.
[00:08:00] Speaker A: I like that when they hire me to build it, too.
[00:08:02] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. Yep.
[00:08:03] Speaker A: Cool. Well, we're keeping these interviews a little short here at the conference because I think at 11:30, all the guests are supposed to be trickling in. But I appreciate your time coming out here. And then what was the name of the company again?
[00:08:13] Speaker B: It's anua.
[00:08:14] Speaker A: Anua.
[00:08:14] Speaker B: Anua. Yep.
[00:08:15] Speaker A: And you guys are?
[00:08:15] Speaker B: South Carolina, North Carolina, Greensboro, North Carolina headquarters this weekend. That's where our manufacturing plan is. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:08:22] Speaker A: It's awesome. Well, again, thanks for your time.
[00:08:23] Speaker B: All right. Thank you, Jason. Appreciate the opportunity. Thank you.
[00:08:26] Speaker A: Bye.
