Portable Sanitation Association International

ASSOCIATIONINSIGHT Portable Sanitation Association International News BIWEEKLY EDITION DECEMBER 23, 2020 Page 11 Cold Weather Tips for Sinks…continued from page 10 Getting the Most out of Your Existing Sink Inventory As mentioned earlier, OSHA requires that sinks provide either hot and cold or tepid running water. The water also has to be potable, according to the regulations. This combination of requirements is virtually impossible to meet given the current state of portable sanitation equipment and the evolving laws. So let's take a look at what is possible at present. • Eliminate sinks with running water during the winter and replace them with hand sanitizer stations. Although sanitizer was hard to come by earlier this year, those shortages seem to be resolved for now. Hand sanitizer has a high alcohol content and so it does not freeze. That's the upside. The downside is that some inspectors will not accept these. If that happens, you have some options. (1) Use a heated "sink house" as describe earlier in this article. (2) Provide the inspector with information regarding the merits of sanitizer vis-à-vis soap and water. The PSAI has an article about this called "Soap vs Sanitizer" on our website in the Industry Library under the Resources tab. This information is available to all PSAI members free of charge. • Use an additive to keep water in hand sinks from freezing. While salt brine is a popular additive for toilets to prevent freezing, you don't want to try that in hand sinks for a variety of reasons. Instead, consider a skin-friendly additive that will not freeze. In the HOLLway session and Virtual Roundtables on sink solutions, a few products were mentioned; at least one PSAI member company manufactures a product like this. The positive news is these products are quite good at preventing freezing down to -30F/-34C, although the likelihood of someone actually exposing their skin to water in those conditions is debatable. The not-so-great news is that these additives are not potable, which technically means they don't meet OSHA standards. This might catch the attention of an OSHA inspector and require additional explanation. See this October 14, 2020 article for help in how to communicate about that. A challenge for this approach is soap. Soap products will freeze unless they have a lot of alcohol in them. While sanitizer has alcohol, soap usually doesn't. So if you use additives to keep sink water running, be sure you provide soap that won't freeze, or require the customer to provide bar soap. Know Your Costs This article covered only sinks. A whole host of extra costs go along with maintaining service in the winter. From mixing salt brine for pre-fill, to adding pellets to urinals, to all the ideas we've described here for keeping sinks in working order—none of them are free. Take time to figure out what your winter costs are and have a plan for recovering them from your customers. It is not uncommon for profit margins to fall in the winter. Some markets will simply not bear seasonal increases, but don't assume that is the case. Much of the time you can adjust pricing or add line items and surcharges to cover the extra expenses you incur during the coldest months. More Resources The PSAI's Virtual Roundtable (VRT) on December 3 covered winter tips for units, sinks, trucks, and trailers. To learn more, check out the recording in our library of VRT recordings. The PSAI also has many published materials on how to prepare and service equipment, keep your team safe, and otherwise survive until spring. You'll find most of them in our Industry Library, and they are covered in our training courses. Send questions to karleenk@ psai.org and we'll do our best to find you the answers. Now that the solstice is past, we're on the way to spring! v

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