Food Truck Commissary Plumbing in Maricopa County

A commissary is the truck's base of operations, and the county requires every mobile food unit to work from one. Maricopa County's commissary page lists the services a commissary can provide: fresh water supply, gray water disposal, ware washing, food preparation, food storage, trash disposal, chemical storage and cleaning facilities. Each unit needs a signed commissary agreement at initial permitting and again at renewal.

The county does not rely on the signature. It verifies that the commissary can actually provide what your truck needs, and the code requires trucks serving time and temperature controlled foods to keep a log of visits for 30 days. If you run a commissary kitchen, the plumbing is what makes that agreement true.

Gray water from a truck goes into a commissary drain that the city has approved for it. The county's rule is that all wastewater and grease must be disposed of in a sanitary manner, and holding tanks are emptied into an approved sewage disposal system. A cleanout behind a shopping center or a storm drain is not an option. Our FAQ on where a food truck can dump grease and gray water covers the wording.

The part that surprises restaurant owners is the city sign-off. If a truck with a three-compartment sink uses a commissary that is not on the county's list, the county's form requires written approval from the local jurisdiction's pretreatment program before it discharges wastewater. A restaurant that lets a truck dump into its floor sink without that approval is taking on a discharge its city has not approved. The wastewater also loads the interceptor, so a commissary that adds trucks should talk to its pumper about the schedule.

The potable water side needs the same care as the dump side. The county's Type III guidance calls for a 30 gallon fresh tank, 20 gallons more with a prep sink, a quick-disconnect potable connection and food-grade hose, and it requires every plumbing connection on the truck to be a different size so that the fresh and waste lines cannot be crossed.

At the commissary, the hose bibb is where contamination starts. Phoenix's plumbing code requires hose-threaded outlets to be protected by a vacuum breaker, and many Valley cities test and track larger assemblies on the water service. A fill station with an unprotected hose that has been dragged across a dumping pad is a cross connection waiting to happen. We repair and replace domestic backflow assemblies and file the test results with the city, and our commercial backflow FAQ explains the annual cycle. We do not test fire assemblies.

The tank sizes decide how often a truck has to go home. The county's plan review list asks for a wastewater tank 15 percent larger than the fresh water tank, a drain valve larger than 1 inch at the tank's lowest point so water leaves the moment the valve opens, and fill connections at the top of the tank. A three-compartment sink with 6 gallon basins and a half gallon per minute of flow has to deliver water at 100 degrees F or higher.

A truck that loses water pressure mid-service is a different problem. Read what to do when a food truck loses water supply before you call anyone, and know that whether the unit itself needs county sign-off is covered in plumbing for a mobile food truck in Maricopa County.

A commissary needs a floor sink or dump station drain with a clear path to the building sewer, a mop sink, hand sinks, a three-compartment sink and a grease device sized for the load. The commissary rules require storage, equipment cleaning where food is prepared, and a potable fill. For hot water, the county allows a shared facility with three or more permittees under different ownership to run one properly sized heater, and the guide says it must still be sized for the combined load.

Phoenix makes maintenance of a multiple-user interceptor the property owner's job, with three years of records. Mesa requires a trap wherever the county requires a three-compartment sink. If your kitchen lies in a different city, the rules change, so confirm with its pretreatment office.

If the truck itself leaks, the generator fails or the propane system acts up, that is the builder's or a propane service's job, not a commissary plumber's. We work on the commissary's building plumbing and its connections, not on the vehicle.

If your truck uses a commissary that is already on the county list and has an approved agreement on file, you may not need anything beyond keeping the dump drain clear.

We install and repair floor sinks, indirect waste lines, hand sinks, mop sinks and hose-bibb vacuum breakers, and we clean and jet the drain lines a dump station depends on. A licensed hauler pumps the interceptor, and our crew repairs it afterward and coordinates both visits. We offer 24/7 emergency service, free estimates and upfront pricing. See commercial drain cleaning, grease trap and interceptor service and our restaurant plumbing page.