Focus Feature: Work Flow

Providing liquid pumping, plumbing, portable restrooms, wastewater treatment installation and inspection services for a six-county area in Missouri, Austin’s Pumping Service LLC may appear to be a big business at a glance.

While the company maintains a full workload almost seven days a week, customers walking in the door are not greeted by a business suit-adorned receptionist, but rather a 1-year-old boxer named Maggie, who Douglas Hurrelbrink, founder and owner of Austin’s, calls the head of security.

“We’re a small company that likes to look bigger than we are,” Hurrelbrink says. “But we are not just a couple of guys with shovels. We know what we’re doing.”

In the spirit of small business doing big things, Hurrelbrink set his staff of five on an endeavor this past spring toward becoming increasingly conscience of water – Austin’s Pumping’s most utilized natural resource.

The water business
While many may not consider where the water they use to flush their toilets comes from, Hurrelbrink says his water consumption is of the upmost importance to the business.

“We were flushing clean drinking water down the toilet and washing our trucks with it,” Hurrelbrink says.

“It just didn’t make sense.”

Through a series of events and conversations with the James River Basin Partnership – an organization that works to protect the water quality of springs, streams, rivers and lakes – Hurrelbrink and his staff installed a 3,700-gallon rainwater retrieval system, which requires no electricity, on site at the Strafford-based business.

Having cultivated a relationship with the JRBP as a five-year member, Austin’s was a name on the mind of Tiffany Frey, a JRBP project manager, when a Show-Me Yards, Neighborhoods, Farms and Ranches grant became available through the Department of Natural Resources.

The JRBP grant funneled about $7,000 toward the project and Austin’s invested about $3,000 for labor and parts for the system.

“This was born of time, conversations and brainstorming, and we think this is the first of its kind in this country,” Frey says. “Anytime you can use rainwater, or nonpotable water, for a nonpotable purpose, that is basically the highest, smartest use.”

Aside from using the rainwater to irrigate the property’s lawn and garden and to clean his three pump trucks, Hurrelbrink uses rainwater to service the 150 portable restrooms Austin’s rents to local businesses – the reason Frey says Austin’s conservation is unique.

Austin’s rents to myriad businesses from a firework stand to a construction site. The restrooms also are rented out for a variety of local events, the most recent being the Dam Jam and Downtown River Rescue celebration, though all portable restrooms for that event were donated by Austin’s.

Environmental impact
In 2013, Hurrelbrink says Austin’s used 8,000 to 12,000 gallons of clean city water to conduct business, which included servicing portable restrooms, washing trucks and irrigating its property and reeled in about $300,000 in revenue. The company now uses only rainwater. While he projects to spend less on the business water bill this year, Hurrelbrink says his savings will not be significant enough to lower prices for customers.

“For me, as a business owner, this wasn’t just to save money. This was something we could do at a low cost to actually help the environment,” Hurrelbrink says, emphasizing his feelings that every business and individual has a responsibility and capability to do their part.  

“Everybody with a roof can do this,” he says, explaining that all the water his company collects comes from the rainwater that rolls off the roofs of Austin’s two buildings and are then stored in the tanks. “We don’t even collect half the amount we can, and yet we have more than enough.”  

Water collection not only serves conservation needs, but also serves as a tool to keep water that enters the city’s water supply from exposure to harsh chemicals.

“Collecting rainwater allows the water time to be cleaned and stops it from causing excess issues,” Frey says. “It also reduces the amount of exposure that rivers have to pollutants,” noting as rain falls it travels over land and roadways before entering storm drains. This is where rain water picks up pollutants that can cause problems down the line, Frey says.

In the future, Frey says businesses can expect customers and clients to demand more from them on an environmental level as the green movement spreads.

“People more and more are looking to work with people that are looking out for the environment in their business practices,” she says.

A family company
While rainwater conservation is a business practice of Austin’s Pumping Service, for Hurrelbrink, family is also a big part of how his business operates.

He keeps his family close and on the payroll.

Hurrelbrink works alongside his wife Elizabeth and two of his four sons, while the other two serve overseas in the U.S. Army. Even his sister is there.

Austin’s also works side by side with Hurrelbrink’s brother in-law, who owns Action Rooter Sewer & Drain LLC, a full-service plumbing company.

Before starting Austin’s Pumping Service, Hurrelbrink installed financial systems and equipment at banks. But in 2009, when banks were failing, Hurrelbrink saw the need to steer his career in another direction.

Hurrelbrink’s brother-in-law, Jack Crow, who has been involved in the plumbing business for more than 17 years, at the same time found himself wanting to incorporate pumping services into his business model, but struggling.

“You can’t do it all yourself sometimes,” Crow says. “You can’t be a one man show forever.”

Like true brothers, they helped each other out.

Though the two businesses operate as separate entities, Hurrelbrink and Crow consider each other partners, helping direct business one another’s way, sharing warehouse space and working alongside each other on a daily basis.

Together, the businesses do more than their names suggest.

On a long list of services, Austin’s performs grease trap cleaning, restaurant hydro-jetting, real estate septic and water well inspections, sewer and drain cleaning, septic tank repairs, carwash pit cleaning, camera locating and inspection and backflow certification and repairs.

“We are called Austin’s Pumping Service, but we do a whole lot more than just pumping,” Hurrelbrink says.[[In-content Ad]]