More than 40 years ago, Herbert W. Rohrbaugh Sr. bought a cheap septic-cleaning truck so he could pump his own tank. Soon, neighbors noticed the truck and asked whether he could pump their systems, too.

Before he knew it, Rohrbaugh was in the septic-cleaning business, and has been ever since. Luckily for him, technology has advanced the business.

"If I had to go back to the way that I started, I'd quit right now," he said. What was once a grueling job has gotten simpler over the years.

The 77-year-old Emmitsburg resident has turned the service into a family business, and works alongside his son, Herb, most days.

On a recent morning, the elder Rohrbaugh shouted "Crank it up!" just before he and his son pulled on their work gloves to begin cleaning a tank on Kelbaugh Road.

As the father drew a long, flexible hose from one side of the truck, his son extracted a long-handled shovel from the other.

The father reached down and removed the cap from a 1,000-gallon septic tank made of precast concrete in the ground. In went the hose. The truck began sucking up the contents, with a rapid mechanical groan, smoke fluttering along the tank.

As Herb peered down into the hole, working the long-handled shovel around, inside the tank lay the watery and sludgy remnants of household waste that a stew of bacteria had breaking down for years. A faint smell similar to a dredged creek lifted from the ground.

The father of two teenage sons in the Thurmont school system, Rohrbaugh Jr. got into his father's business at age 9, when he was called upon to hold down the brakes of the family's first septic truck.

Now, the father and son make rounds to homes with scheduled cleanings every 2 � to five years, on average. They likened septic-cleaning to getting an oil change for your car — it's relatively inexpensive at about $175, and regularly scheduled, but if you don't do it, the consequences can be expensive.

Sometimes people forget that they haven't had their septic system serviced for, say, nine years. That's when the late night emergency calls come in.

Herb will someday take the reins of the Emmitsburg business and, in the future, hand them to his own sons.

With the home's tank empty, Herb crouched down with a mirror and scanned the inflow and outflow pipes in the tank. Bert told the homeowner to flush a toilet to check the line. A clear waterfall drained into the tank.

The father and son rinsed the equipment and replaced it on the truck. After lunch, they'd head to the Frederick County Sewage Treatment Plant at Ballenger Creek to pay a fee – between $45 and $60 per ton, depending on density – and empty the tank.

E-mail Jeremy Hauck at jhauck@gazette.net.