Water utilities warn against flushing wipes
As people ramp up their sanitizing efforts at home and work, some are causing havoc for municipal water utilities.
“Residents are reminded of the importance of NOT flushing wipes of any sort — including those labelled ‘flushable’ or ‘biodegradable,’” The Town of New Glasgow said in a Facebook post. “We are already seeing impacts on our municipal sewer system due to the increase in usage of these wipes. Pump stations are being blocked and disabled by wipes and the only way to clear the obstruction is to physically handle the pump and remove the sewer debris by hand.”
This can put homes at risk of sewer back up and also creates more work for public works staff.
In Kings County, director of engineering and public works Scott Quinn said the municipality has also already had instances of pumping stations being blocked and disabled because of the wipes, and is urging people to throw them in the garbage instead.
He said most of the literature he has read indicates the wipes don’t break down at all, or only partially, and certainly not before they reach the pumps.
“It certainly is a concern in the wake of all the recommendations from public health on disinfection practices,” he said. “We certainly want to encourage that, but we are concerned about the unintended consequence that may have on our operations if folks just keep on throwing them down the toilet.”
He said when the pumps become clogged, workers must pull them from the pumping stations and disentangle them, which he calls an “unpleasant” use of staff resources.
“They can wrap around the impellers, and once they get stuck in there it’s quite a task to get them out.”
In some extreme situations, the pump may have to be stripped apart to remove the material, Quinn said.
“At the minimum, it takes a couple of workers to set up the safety steps and then pull the pump out and do what they can in the field to clear the blockage.”
James Campbell of Halifax Water said the utility hasn’t had any issues with the wipes yet, but there have been in the past.
“It’s been a problem in our systems and systems across North America for years,” he said. “Unfortunately, they’re labelled as flushable, but they either block the lateral from your home and cause a sewer backup in your home, which is quite unpleasant, or they make it out into our system and ball up along with other things people like to flush down the system like bandages, dental floss, cigarette butts and condoms.”
He said he can understand the public’s confusion because of the labelling on the containers, “but they really don’t break down.”
The utility created a video called “Toilet paper, the one and only flushable wipe,” and does a test with the wipes.
“You can see clearly that they don’t break down,” he said.
He said water utilities have a lobby group that has been trying to convince the federal government to find some way to address the issue of how the wipes are labelled.
Ron Martin, of Ron Martin’s Plumbing in Kentville, said his company usually gets one call every couple of months from homeowners with blocked pipes that turn out to be caused by the wipes, but there have been half a dozen in the past week.
He said homeowners are surprised when told the wipes won’t decompose and shouldn’t be flushed.
He said none of the calls have involved sewage backing up into the homes, but “they can make a mess in a hurry.”