As toilet paper shelves sit empty, flushable wipes are in demand across the region. The one catch is that the wipes aren’t supposed to end up in the sewer.
Those ‘flushable wipes’ that residents are sending down the toilet are starting to clog the system.
Kathy Bentz of the Prince William Service Authority is urging residents to stop flushing wipes and hygiene products down the toilet as well as dumping oil, fat, and grease down the sink. When those products get into the pipes, it creates a clog in the pipes that county workers have to manually clean.
“There shouldn’t be any circumstance where these products can be flushed down the toilet,” Bentz said.
Wipes and other products that get into the system can not only clog the community pipes but they can also clog pipes that are in your home.
“These are costly repairs for your system as well as the county’s,” Bentz said. “You don’t want to deal with those plumbing costs.”
The sewer systems are built to deal with small amounts of wipes through devices called grinders and channel screens that grind up and catch non-flushable items.
“When the flows are heavy, it’s difficult for the system to keep up,” Bentz said.
For fat, oil, and grease, Bentz says not to throw the cooking waste down the drain, but rather let it cool and then throw the waste away in a garbage bag.
The county has dealt with this issue in the past. They’ve had to shut down certain pipes to clean and replace the grinders and channel screens which is ‘costly’ according to Bentz.
Not only are the backups costly, but they also harm the environment. The pipe can burst and unsanitary water can pollute the environment if it were near a manhole.
“Dont flush those wipes,” Bentz said “The only things you should flush are the three P’s. Pee, Poo and Paper.”
