Northwest Cascade Inc

Northwest Cascade/Flohawks Septic Field Complaint John and Mallow Robinson 1/19/21 History We purchased our property at 225 Bella Bella Drive, Fox Island, WA in December 2013. As a sale requirement, the previous owner was required to update the property’s septic system and used Northwest Cascade as their septic contractor. Among other improvements, the company installed a drip system that was signed off by Pierce County. FloHawks, an offshoot of Northwest, has done yearly county inspections ever since. During an extensive interior remodel of the property, which delayed our occupying the house, our contractor advised us that the septic field was extremely soggy. Between 5/1/14 and 8/25/14, I logged eleven calls to Northwest Cascade complaining about the problem. Dave Rink, FloHawks Customer Representative, and Tom Rogers, Northwest Cascade Residential Construction Manager, looked at the field, debated options, promised to return with the installer, but never did. I also made calls to their consultant, Ric Wilkerson of Wilkerson and Associates Inc, who promised to follow up on the problem. He wrote me saying he spoke with “one of the premier experts on wastewater drip dispersal in the state” who agreed to inspect the system when the immediate rainy weather improved. To my knowledge, that never happened. By now Adam Cushman, Northwest Residential Construction Manager, and Mike Kempf, Site Development Supervisor, were included in the communications. Kelvin Elbert, Customer Representative, had came out to examine a separate problem with tank flooding, but he, too, observed that the septic field was saturated and could be contributing to the flooding. Despite all these inspections and conversations, no action or follow-up occurred. On 8/28/14, I emailed Mr. Inman at Northwest Cascade, complaining that the problem kept “falling off the radar.” On 8/29/14, Tom Rogers called to say he and two others had come by, inspected the field, and decided it was within in normal limits but promised to return if the problem returned with the rains. A number of serious personal health crises prevented me from taking any action in the intervening years but the soggy drain field continued unabated year-round. Our gardener complained that he could barely mow the field even in summer without leaving deep tracks in the mushy loam. So, I resumed reaching out to the Northwest Cascade, the installing company, for help. After several phone calls, Ric Wilkerson and Adam Cushman came out on 9/17/20, agreed the field was quite soggy, and promised to take soil samples. Several calls were necessary to make this happen and to obtain the results. Mr. Cushman then informed me that the sandy loam of the soil was not draining and claimed that 4-6” of poor soil had been imported over the drain field by someone else other than his company and speculated that this was the problem. He subsequently sent me a bid of $5,010.00 for replacing this soil at my expense with the caveat that the plan offered no guarantee of success. I asked whether the company had ever tested their drip system after installation but received no reply. Unfortunately, Matt Kewpf, who installed the system, no longer worked for Northwest Cascade but Mr. Cushman denied that the problem could be one of original workmanship. On 5/22/20, Carl Evanson, a FloHawks employee, conducted the regular December inspection and informed me that the that the septic field was very soggy. Despite the fact it has been soggy since the start, no other yearly inspector had ever mentioned it to me. It appears that their inspectors had never inspected the drain field or considered it a problem which is curious because the saturation was always worse in the winter. I explained our long history of problems to Mr. Evanson, which he had never heard, and he promised to send out their trouble-shooter. I have yet to hear from anyone. Apparently Northwest Cascade and FloHawks do not communicate. I next obtained second opinions from two other septic companies. Both suggested that new soil would only hide the problem and advised me that drip system like ours are installed because of poor soil so this could not have been new information to them. The impression I got from these consultations was that the system was improperly installed. The likely solution would be redoing the septic field system at a possible cost of $10-15,000. I advised Adam Cushman of my findings. All further emails to Adam Cushman went unanswered and I finally learned that he had left the company. Others on the email thread (Ric Wilkerson, Clint Meyers, and new president Greg Potts) apparently chose not to respond to my concerns. With the heavy rains last night, my septic alarm went off six times. Understandably rain can contribute to rapidly filling tanks and water backup, but neither of my neighbors’ alarms went off nor any of the septic systems of my friends on the island. At the very start of this problem, investigators advised me that water backed up from slow-draining soggy septic fields could easily amplify the problem. That certainly appears to be the most likely cause here. Conclusions Our seriously saturated septic field has been a documented problem from the day we moved in in 2014. Despite an amazing number of calls, emails, conversations, inspections, and promises from Northwest Cascade, we have never received any believable findings or remediation. Lots of talk, no responsibility taken, blame the customer. As noted, Northwest Cascade’s conclusions have also been seriously questioned by two independent septic installers. Northwest’s president, Greg Potts, has reviewed this material and refuses to take any responsibility or consider a compromise solution. Based on the above experience, I would strongly recommend not using Northwest Cascade for residential septic installation, inspection or management.

I ve used them twice and they are very reliable. They come when they say they will. They were very cautious not to get water in the house, mess up, or scratch anything in the house, which is very important to me. They had senior citizen consideration and I would recommend them.

Clean facility, serviced promptly each week and re-supplied. Great service, reasonably priced. Ongoing service at $95.00 a month.

WE LIVE ON A HILL AND OUR SEPTIC TANK IS DOWNHILL EVEN MORE. ON THE OPPOSITE SIDE OF OUR HOUSE FROM THE DRIVEWAY, WHICH IS RATHER LONG AND STEEP. SO THEY HAVE TO RUN A LONG PIPE WITH AN EXTENSION AROUND THE HOUSE. MOST COMPANIES DO NOT WANT, OR HAVE THE NECESSARY EQUIPMENT (PUMP SIZE AND TRUCK), FOR THIS JOB. THEY HAD TO DIG UP THE LID WHICH IS ABOUT 4 FEET DOWN. THIS WAS SOMEWHAT DIFFICULT AS THE TANK IS NOT ONLY DEEP, BUT UNDER A DECK.

I CALLED FOR A PLUMBER AT 7:45 A.M. I WAS TOLD THAT THE WORKER FROM FLOWHAWKS WOULD ARRIVE BETWEEN 1-5 P.M. GARY ARRIVED AT 6:45 P.M. I HAD PHONED THE COMPANY TWICE TO INQUIRE AS TO WHEN SOMEONE WOULD BE ARRIVING. GARY WAS PROFESSIONAL AND DID A GOOD JOB CLEARING ROOTS FROM THE SEWER LINE. WHEN DIGGING THE CLEAN-OUT, THE SOIL WAS VERY DIFFICULT TO DIG IN AND IT TOOK A COUPLE OF HOURS FOR HIM TO FINISH THIS JOB. HE HAD TO CUT A HOLE IN THE IRON PIPE SEWER LINE TO INSTALL THE CLEAN-OUT. HE SEEMED VERY KNOWLEDGEABLE ABOUT HIS JOB AND ALTHOUGH HE COULD NOT REPAIR THE BROKEN PIPE TO THE BATHTUB, I BELIEVED HIM WHEN HE SAID THAT THE SWIM JOB AND FIXING THE PIPE COULD BE DONE ON THE WEEKEND. AFTER THIS EXPERIENCE, I WAS STILL WILLING TO ALLOW THE COMPANY TO COMPLETE THE OTHER JOB(S) THAT NEEDED TO BE DONE.

IT WAS VERY DISTURBING TO ME THAT WE WERE LOOSING ALOT OF LANDSCAPING AND BEAUTIFUL SHRUBS AND TREES BUT IN ORDER TO HAVE WATER AGAIN IT HAD TO BE DONE. THEY CAME IN AND DID THE JOB BUT IT WAS VERY HARD TO SWALLOW NOT ONLY THE PRICE BUT THE YARD BEING BEAT UP.

IT WAS TIME FOR THE SEPTIC TO BE CLEANED. CALLED AND SET-UP AN APP. WHICH WAS 2 DAYS AFTER I CALLED. THEY WERE VERY BUSY. THEY HAD TO BRING IN A BACKHOE TO ACCESS THE COVER. ALL IN ALL DID A VERY GOOD JOB AND IT ONLY TOOK A COUPLE OF HOURS. DID A VERY GOOD JOB!!