Problems with the sewer pumping station on U.S. 61 North, which serves Merit Health River Region, have forced the Vicksburg Board of Mayor and Aldermen to declare an emergency to fix it.

The board passed a resolution declaring the emergency at its Monday meeting. Declaring an emergency allows city officials to bypass the state’s bid laws to hire a contractor or purchase parts to repair the problem.

The lift station helps move sewage from the hospital to the city’s sewer line and then to the wastewater treatment plant on Rifle Range Road.

“We’ve got to rebuild it,” Public Works Director Garnet Van Norman said.

According to the resolution, the components of the station are coming apart and only one pump is working correctly, making the station “unsafe for the public.”

“We’ve got to put new piping in it and order two new pumps to go in it,” he said. “It’s kind of an important pump station because everything coming out of the hospital goes into it.”