A Business, An Industry - Zabel

A Business,
An Industry
Harry Nurse, Jr., built Zabel Environmental Technology
while also promoting industry associations and contractor training
By Ted J. Rulseh
Bob Zabel was a man ahead
of his time. In 1959, Zabel, a
partner with his father in a
septic tank pumping company
in Louisville, Ky., received a patent for
a septic tank effluent filter designed to
help keep drainfields from failing. He
often stated his simple goal: “I want to
save mankind from perishing in his
own waste.”
Some 31 years later, Harry Nurse,
Jr., helped bring Zabel’s invention
into the mainstream. In 1990, he
bought the company then called
Zabel Wastewater Filters, Inc. He then
built it into Zabel Environmental
Technology, a company that now
offers more than 200 components and
systems for the onsite wastewater
treatment industry.
Along the way, Nurse championed
the formation of associations to help
tie together a fragmented industry
and promoted training to help onsite
contractors become more professional
and raise their stature with the public.
DEEP ROOTS
The Zabel story goes back to the
early 1900s, when Bob Zabel’s grandfather
operated a business cleaning
privies. In the 1950s, Bob Zabel and
his father were partners in the
William J. Zabel & Son septic system
pumping firm.
Bob’s first filter was a simple device
whose basic design is still widely
used today. It failed to catch on
commercially, though, partly because
septic systems were not high on the
public’s list of priorities, and partly
because the device wasn’t glamorous.
“The academics and engineers
looked at it and said, ‘This isn’t very
interesting. You don’t plug it in, it
doesn’t blow bubbles, it doesn’t have
pumps, it just hangs in the tank,’”
Nurse says. “In reality, filters are where
you can put the least money and get
the most return in a septic system.”
In 1989, Zabel, an uncle of Nurse’s
wife Jan, asked Nurse to buy his
company, which he ran essentially as
a hobby and whose only products
were two models of effluent filters.
Nurse was reluctant: He knew nothing
about the industry, and he gave his
all to his own business, The Trinity
Group, a successful architectural and
building firm.
Nurse agreed to let Zabel move his
company into Trinity Group facilities.
In 1990, Nurse attended two onsite
industry trade shows, including the
Pumper & Cleaner Expo, and did
research. “I got back home and thought
to myself, ‘This is one fractured, momand-pop
marketplace,’” Nurse recalls.
“I didn’t see a lot of sophistication. I
didn’t see many large companies.”
Saluting Industry Pioneers
This is another in a series of profiles of Industry Pioneers that will be published in
Pumper leading up to the 25th Annual Pumper & Cleaner Expo in February 2005. Readers
are welcome to recommend outstanding industry contributors for profiles in future editions.
Send your suggestions to Jeff Bruss by e-mail (jeffb@pumper.com), fax (715/546-3786) or
mail (COLE Publishing, P.O. Box 220, Three Lakes, WI 54562).
Still, what he saw intrigued him,
and in March 1990, he bought Zabel’s
company, which then had four
employees and annual sales of about
$110,000. Nurse went to work improving
the company’s sales, distribution,
pricing and other business practices,
while continuing to own The Trinity
Group until 1994, when he sold it
and devoted himself full time to Zabel
Environmental.
ORIGINS OF NOWRA
While building the company, Nurse
also began helping to build the onsite
industry. “As I looked around, I saw a
lot of bad installations, errors in installations,
codes not being followed, and
in some instances bad codes,” says
Nurse. “We developed a two-pronged
approach: working with government
agencies on improving the regulations,
and working with contractors to
help them install better systems. Our
reasoning was that if the onsite market
was hurt, we were hurt.”
In September 1991, Nurse attended
a meeting in Atlanta called by Bob
Lynch, then executive director of the
Florida septic tank association. Lynch
was trying to create a national industry
association.
In a discussion with about a dozen
industry leaders from around the
Profile
Harry Nurse, Jr.
Years in the industry: 14
Company:
Zabel Environmental Technology, Crestwood, Ky.
Unique contribution: Helped popularize the septic tank effluent filter,
build industry associations, and foster training
and professionalism among industry members
country, Nurse argued that what was
needed was not a septic tank association
but an onsite wastewater treatment
group to include regulators,
pumpers, installers, engineers and
designers. That was the start of the
National Onsite Wastewater Recycling
Association (NOWRA). Nurse was
elected president and Lynch served as
executive director.
“WE THINK THE WAY TO
BE SUCCESSFUL IS NOT
TO FIGHT OVER PIE BUT
TO BAKE MORE PIES. WHILE
THERE ARE SOME THINGS
COMPETITORS OUGHT NOT
TO DO TOGETHER, THERE IS
ONE THING COMPETITORS
MUST DO TOGETHER, AND
THAT IS TO BUILD A BETTER
MARKETPLACE.”
Harry Nurse, Jr.
The first affiliate group, the Texas
Onsite Wastewater Association, formed
soon afterward. In its home state,
Zabel helped create the Kentucky
Onsite Wastewater Association, and
Theo Terry, now Zabel’s executive vice
president, was the founding president.

Harry Nurse, Jr., and
Zabel Environmental
Technology took installer
training on the road and
reached numerous
contractors with stateapproved
programs.
“YOU CAN’T DO TRAINING IN ONE PLACE AT ONE TIME AND SAY,
‘Y’ALL COME,’ AND HOPE PEOPLE SHOW UP. YOU GET ON
YOUR HORSE AND YOU RIDE OUT TO THE COUNTIES AND YOU
DO THE TRAINING WHERE THE CONTRACTORS ARE.”
Harry Nurse, Jr.
NOWRA now has 25 affiliate state
onsite wastewater associations.
In 1998, Nurse and colleagues
drove the formation of the Association
for Installers and Manufacturers
(AIM), devoted to training installation
contractors. “Manufacturers had the
biggest stake in a well trained installer
base,” Nurse says. “We needed to
improve the experience of the homeowner
and the general contractor who
buys the installer’s services. We needed
to improve the experience of regulators
dealing with contractors. You
can only accomplish that by training
contractors.
“We formed AIM, and then we
contacted association groups throughout
the United States and asked them
if they wanted to take part in training.
We got an overwhelming response.
A dozen manufacturers signed up,
including two of our big competitors in
the filter market.
“We opened our market to them
by going to places where we had
contacts and taking them with us. We
think the way to be successful is not to
fight over pie but to bake more pies.
While there are some things competitors
ought not to do together, there
is one thing competitors must do
together, and that is to build a better
marketplace.” AIM reached a total of
some 10,000 members and held a
dozen conferences and numerous
training programs before it moved
under NOWRA’s umbrella in 2002.
TRAINING ON THE ROAD
On top of its association involvement,
Zabel Environmental undertook
training on its own. That effort began
in Kentucky, where the state had just
passed a regulation that required
installers to earn continuing education
units. More than 400 people attended
the first two-day training session put
on by representatives from Zabel and
other manufacturers, and state and
county health department personnel.
Later, Zabel took training out to
the contractors to make attendance as
convenient as possible for them. “You
can’t do training in one place at one
time and say, ‘Y’all come,’ and hope
people show up,” Nurse says. “You get
on your horse and you ride out to the
counties and you do the training
where the contractors are.”
Zabel still conducts training programs,
often under the auspices of
state associations or local health
department, and always using course
materials written and approved by
state officials. “We have trained
thousands of installers,” says Nurse.
“Last year, we trained about 900 in
Kentucky alone.”
WALKING THE TALK
In striving to professionalize the
industry, Nurse has held Zabel to high
professional standards of its own.
Its product portfolio is designed to
provide one-stop shopping for contractors.
The company has been fully
computerized since 1994 and ships
same-day on orders received by noon.
Marketing materials include the
Zabel Zone, a magazine for contractors,
regulators, engineers and academics.
The entire product catalog is available
on the company web site, and an
online store simplifies shopping.
Bob Zabel, who died at age 86 in
1997, could not have envisioned what
he started with his simple effluent
filter back in the 1950s. But, chances
are, if he could see what has become of
the company that still bears his name,
he would be pleased and proud. ■
© 2004, COLE Publishing Inc.
Reprinted with permission from
August 2004
COLE Publishing
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Three Lakes, WI 54562
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