Pumper Continues Education, Covers Vast South Dakota Ranch Territory, Provides Exceptional Service

Pam Weierke prospects for pumping customers throughout the farm and ranch territory in northwestern South Dakota and strikes pay dirt.
Pumper Continues Education, Covers Vast South Dakota Ranch Territory, Provides Exceptional Service
Pam Weierke puts on lots of miles serving ranch owners hours away from her home base. Her dog, a miniature Australian shepherd named Skippy, is her constant companion on the road.

Interested in Trucks?

Get Trucks articles, news and videos right in your inbox! Sign up now.

Trucks + Get Alerts

The population of Sturgis, S.D., swells to about half a million when the town hosts its annual motorcycle rally the first week in August. Otherwise, it’s only about 7,000. And surrounding towns in this northwest portion of the state are even smaller – and are few and far between.

This remote area is where Pam Weierke, owner of Weierke’s Septic Service LLC, found an underserved market among the area’s ranches and farms. The distances she travels are so vast that several times a year she goes out for days at a time. And just for a change of pace, during the motorcycle rally she’s right there in the thick of it, pumping anything and everything.

Unemployment to self employment

In 2005 Weierke and her husband Ray moved to South Dakota from Minnesota when she had an opportunity to be safety director for a trucking company. But in 2007 she was laid off when the company was bought out. As she considered options, she kept coming back to the idea of doing septic work, which she had done with her first husband some 30 years prior.

So the then-49-year-old grandmother checked out the competition, researched the going rates, called the state to learn about local regulations, got a loan and then asked her son and ex-husband – Cody and Mike McKinley – to find her a truck. With the enthusiastic support of her husband, Ray, and extended family she was off and running.

“It was like I never left it,” she says. “I knew the process, I knew what to do.” What was hard was building up a clientele, especially since she was relatively new to the area and people did not know her. A big breakthrough came when she started attending local fairs called home-and-ag shows held January through April in surrounding towns. “I put up a booth there just to introduce myself to the public, answer questions and get to know people.” She says it’s one of the best things she ever did – and continues to do.

She also sent flyers to people in nearby towns. Although they didn’t always produce immediate results she is constantly amazed that years later people still call her because they had stuck her flyer up on their refrigerator and now needed service.

Continuing Education

After establishing her business, Weierke went through the state certification process and began performing septic inspections. She also went through the University of Minnesota’s onsite sewage treatment program, a course of study not offered in South Dakota. She took all the required tests and goes back every three years for training updates. This is helpful not only to her but to her clients as she wants to pass along the most current information as it evolves.

“More than half my job is educating the customer,” she says. “Many still believe if you’re not having problems you don’t have to pump them. But I’ve made a lot of believers out of them.”

When she meets a customer for the first time, she explains the do’s and don’ts of a septic system. She also gives them a brochure from the University of Minnesota on the topic. She puts the brochure into what she calls her goody packet – a marketing tool she fills with useful items such as lighted key rings, calendars and business cards.

Weierke also keeps up with state, local and federal regulations which continue to evolve. “Thirty-five years ago it wasn’t anywhere near as controlled or regulated as it is now,” she says. For example, homeowners in her county are now required to have their tanks pumped and inspected before selling their house. And in a nearby county all tanks must be pumped and inspected every six years. She believes it’s only a matter of time before those regulations expand to the whole state and she wants to be prepared.

Pumper has also been a valuable source of information, she says. “I go through every issue and take out articles that would be helpful to me. I’ve got those in a three-ring binder and if I have questions – what did this person do in this situation – it’s a good reference for me.”

Have truck will travel

A few years ago a friend of Weierke’s suggested she check out the area around Faith, N.D., (population 400), about 130 miles north, saying no one was offering septic work there. So she did and says she was astounded how quickly the customer base grew – mostly farmers and ranchers – to the point that now she sets up appointments with her customers and goes up there at least twice a year, sometimes three or four times, for as much as a week at a time. It’s worked out so well she’s now planning to tack on a day or two to her trips and expand another 60 miles north into the area around Bison, N.D. (population 300).

Weierke’s husband often tags along. He’s retired and likes to make a vacation out of it. He drives their horse trailer/camper and she takes the septic truck – a 1999 International DT466 built out by Abernethy Welding & Repair with a 2,500-gallon steel tank and Masport H15W pump – along with her 150R/T sewer line camera from Amazing Machinery Inc. and her other faithful companion, dog Skippy.

Weierke calls Ray the “agitator” and the “entertainment committee.” First he stirs up the contents of the tank with the Crust Buster from Schmitz Brothers LLC, then he sits back and chats with the ranch owner while Weierke goes to work. “He’s a real character,” she says. “People are either shaking their heads or they’re smiling.”

Although ranchers often invite her to camp on their land, the Weierkes generally stay at a park in Faith where they’ve got hookups and a nearby gas station. She tries to be considerate of other campers, cleaning the truck before going so it looks and smells good.

Roads are less than ideal, mostly gravel and dirt, and only get worse in the winter. More than once she’s gotten stuck and had to be pulled out by a helpful rancher. “If there’s any doubt at all, we tell them, ‘Be ready with your tractor to come get us.’ There’s always equipment around.”

There are few options for dumping the waste other than as land application on ranchers’ fields. When she land-applies, she adds hydrated lime and tests the pH level, following state Department of Environment and Natural Resources guidelines. She does have limited access to a couple of septic lagoons when she can’t get into the fields because of mud or heavy snow.

Although it can be tough getting away for a week and driving conditions may be difficult, Weierke says she loves it and it really is like a vacation. “I’m working doing what I enjoy,” she says. “It’s fun to meet the people. They’re so friendly and there’s just no way to describe the personalities and their ethics.” And she enjoys the scenery. “You see a lot of country. It’s rolling hills and you’ve got your creeks and streams. There’s a certain beauty about the prairie.”

Sturgis' claim to fame

Weierke makes sure she clears her calendar for the last two weeks of July and the first two weeks of August so she can be on hand for the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, one of the oldest and largest biker rallies in the world. Her involvement begins before the event when she pumps and inspects septic systems for a number of the smaller campgrounds.

She doesn’t do repairs but if she finds a problem she can recommend a plumber or electrician. During the rally she pumps septic systems, campground-owned portable restrooms, pit toilets and graywater tanks. People also sign up – or chase her down – to service their RVs. “I’m busy enough where it’s leave at daybreak, come back well after dark,” she says. After the event she stays on for another week to do a final pumping of everything.

Maneuvering through the wall-to-wall crowds is the most challenging aspect of the job. Her husband usually rides shotgun to help her out. “You just have to have a lot of patience,” she says. “It’s quite an experience.”

Weierke’s regular customers know she’s unavailable for routine work during the rally, but emergencies can happen any time, as she experienced during the 2013 rally when she received a frantic call from a homeowner in Faith who needed his septic system serviced immediately in time for his daughter’s wedding. She finished the most critical jobs at the rally for the day and then made the trip to Faith and back in record time.

Customer feedback

Weierke says the most important thing to her is to make sure the customer is happy, she didn’t leave a mess and she made them aware of any problems she sees and what their options are. “And if I did something wrong or they didn’t like how I handled it, I want to know,” she says. “There’s always room for improvement.”

She has no regrets at all about getting into the business. “It doesn’t feel like a job,” she says. “It’s an adventure.”



Discussion

Comments on this site are submitted by users and are not endorsed by nor do they reflect the views or opinions of COLE Publishing, Inc. Comments are moderated before being posted.