Pickering has increase in sewer pump failures

At the February 7 Pickering City Council meeting, City Clerk Milt Sovereign presented information explaining sewer pump failures in 2022 and 2023.

Sovereign said he had looked for patterns with the failures. There were 26 in 2022 and 29 in 2023. There are 85 Pickering residents with sewer pumps. In both years, March had high rates of failures. The summer months or during lightning season as Sovereign calls it, there are more.

There were 93 sewer pumps purchased originally. Sovereign has contacted Hays Equipment Company, Topeka, KS, about the purchase of two to four pumps for inventory. The company is expecting a price break on the pumps with the next shipment of pumps.

Sovereign has decided to pull sewer pumps in unoccupied houses. The pumps when not in use deteriorate in the sewer wells. He plans to overhaul the pumps and use them as spares.

The city paid Matt Wray, $425, and Bo Hanson, $850, for snow removal four times this winter. The city also approved the Northwest Missouri Regional Council of Governments payment of 56¢ per person living in Pickering. This totaled $83.44.

To try to meet the MoDNR ammonia rates, the water will be recirculated to try to lower the numbers. Sovereign said the city will be receiving a bill for $407 worth of chemical used to lower the ammonia.