The USGS puts the Town of Quantico at 28 feet above sea level, one spot and not an average, on flat Coastal Plain with the tidal Potomac along one edge. The air station’s record, 1.6 miles south-southwest, averages about 41 inches of rain a year. A pit in ground like that works through the wet spells, so a pump that came with an older building has logged a lot of cycles.
Of the 310 occupied homes in the Town, 260 are rented, so the pump is usually the owner’s equipment and the tenant is the one who hears it. A pump that cycles every few seconds, hums without moving water or stays silent in a downpour is worth mentioning to the owner before the next rain. Owners of small buildings can have the pump, the float and the outside discharge looked at together.
About 76 nights a year at the air station fall to 32 degrees or lower, and in half of all years the first one has come by November 8. Prince William County sets 24 inches as the minimum footing depth for frost protection. A discharge line that runs shallow, or lies on the ground to a splash block, can freeze solid, and a pump pushing against ice trips or burns out.
Wind tests the power lines a pump depends on. The air station measured a 66 mph gust in the June 2012 derecho, 58 mph in February 2015 and 59 mph in February 2017. When the power drops, a plain pump stops. A battery backup keeps it going, and it is one of the extras, along with a new pit, outside drain work and a dedicated circuit, each priced in writing.