The Action Sanitary Story
Since the first contract with The Geothermal Geysers in 1979, Action Sanitary has been the North Bay’s leader in sanitation and temporary site services.
When you work with Action Sanitary, you’re working with Northern California locals who know the landscape and unique local needs better than the “big boys”. We’re family owned and operated by the 2nd and 3rd generation.
But being family owned doesn’t mean “backyard operation”. For decades we’ve been a trusted partner and preferred vendor of the US Forestry, USDA, Cal Fire, PG&E, CalPine (The Geysers), and numerous other Federal and State agencies, municipalities, and large corporations.
When the job must be done fast and done right.
They know who to call first – Action Sanitary.
We’re available 24/7 365 days a year for Emergency and After Hours service.
The Family Business
What started as a favor for his father, turned into an unexpected adventure…
The Geysers Geothermal Complex near Cobb Mountain has been producing commercial electricity since the 1960’s and has had a steady flow of people operating them ever since. And anywhere that people are needs to have a place for them to use the restroom. Being in a remote area, there is no standard sewer line, so septic systems and porta potties are the only solution.
A large sanitation company from the Bay Area had the original contract to service the septic tanks and portable toilets but they quickly grew weary of making the long, winding, and oftentimes slippery drive up to The Geysers to service a relatively small amount of units.
That’s when Richard Campo came into the picture.
Time For Expansion
Richard took over the operation as a favor to the company but over the next two years the work grew so quickly that he needed some help of his own. Naturally, he called his son Jerry Campo in Vallejo, CA to ask if he’d be willing to assist. To make it work Jerry would have to leave his successful Body Shop behind. He figured Southern Lake County could be a nice place to raise a family so it might be worth the risk. Jerry took a long hard look in the mirror and decided to go… “all-in”.
Together they set up the first operational base at the Kugelman Ranch in Lower Lake, CA. They quickly outgrew that location and went looking for a larger piece of land to create a permanent business headquarter. Jerry found a nice plot on Spruce Grove Road that the company has called home ever since.
In the 1980’s business remained steady at The Geysers for porta potties, septic services, and bulk potable water delivery. Then the Homestake Gold Mine operation (on Morgan Valley Road in Lower Lake) ramped up production and added Action Sanitary as their preferred vendor.
Content with running the business locally, Jerry was suddenly faced with another hard decision. It was 1985 and the US Forestry Service came calling to ask Jerry to expand Action’s operations. They needed additional Portable Toilet and Holding Tank pumping support for their remote fire camps in the Western US. Being the adventurous type, Jerry Campo again decided to go “all-in”. This time to a bigger adventure spreading their equipment and staff across Western states like Arizona, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington for long stretches of time.
Once again, the US Forestry with their insatiable appetite for equipment, came to Jerry asking for more. “Can you provide us with Shower Trailers?”
Jerry: “Sure”
That started a multi-decade run of providing many services and equipment types to the California and Federal Governments, beginning with the 1992 Fountain Fire in Redding, CA where the company was asked to “bring everything you got”.
In 1994, Action Sanitary began a 5 year contract with US Forestry to station semi-permanent equipment in Tucson, AZ. A 5 year contract in Ely, NV, time spent in Boise, ID and now a permanent setup in Medford, OR. This allowed them to be within a one-day drive of a wildfire to support the fire camp.
Over the decades, Action Sanitary has been at-the-ready to provide natural disaster relief for events like the ’94 Northridge Earthquake, Hurricane Relief for Katrina and Rita in Louisiana, and back to Louisiana again in 2008 for more hurricane relief.
In 2014 when the California Wildfires began their devastating annual run of destruction, Cal Fire leaned on its contract with Action to secure a consistent supply of Portable Showers, Toilets, Septic Pumping, and Potable Water delivery.
As much as Jerry, the family, and the company love to provide natural disaster relief and love the open road, their heart is always here, in Lake County, CA. Action Sanitary has consistently been Lake County’s go-to and most reliable provider of portable toilet rentals, luxury and air conditioned portable bathrooms, septic tank pumping, installation, and repairs, bulk potable water delivery, temporary fence rentals, temporary job site power, and excavation/backhoe services.
Action proudly provides this support to Lake County’s and the Redwood Empire’s wineries, special events, construction projects, concerts, weddings, municipalities, and schools.
Interested In Joining The Action Sanitary Team?
We are always looking to add to our team with committed, hard working individuals ready to provide the Action Sanitary’s customers with world class service.
