Flushing out the problem

Wastewater workers have a name for it: a “fatberg.” And while out of sight may be out of mind, it’s clearly not always out of the way. A fatberg is a mass of congealed cooking fat, wet wipes, discarded dental floss and other things that don’t break down and have been flushed into the sewer system.

You can, if you like, search the term on Google and find all the pictures you’d ever want to see — there’s open argument about how large fatbergs can actually be, but their size is really only restricted by the sewer space they have available to grow into. A fatberg will keep adding layers of accretion until it plugs the works.

A berg can weigh tonnes, and have to be removed at considerable expense; the record size for fatbergs is disputed. There are claims that the largest one found weighed 10 tonnes, but a British newspaper known for its exaggeration has claimed another English fatberg topped 100 tonnes, “the weight of 10 double-decker buses.”

The fat in the bergs is often restaurant and kitchen grease. Other items that don’t break down knit the blobs together.

The cost, though, is the real issue.

A 10-tonne behemoth in the London sewer system did US$600,000 in damage: New York City spent US$4.65 million clearing blockages made by the greasy masses in 2013 alone.

While it takes a big city to launch a true contender for the fatberg world record, the problems that cause the monster blobs bedevil any city that operates a full sewage treatment system.

One of the biggest culprits? “Flushable” wipes that, in reality, should never be flushed. Anyone who has raised children knows a whole bunch of things can be flushed — the question is whether they should be.

The problem of fatbergs and their smaller blockage cousins has led the Canadian Water and Wastewater Association to set up a separate committee to deal only with the issues caused by wipes. When the wipes aren’t building muck monuments, they’re blocking equipment that’s used to treat sewage, and must be cleared from that equipment — an expensive and time-consuming process. (Also, something that’s probably ranked at close to No. 178,924 on the list of “world’s best jobs.”)

Perhaps the best reason not to flush wipes and other items that don’t break down?

Self-interest. On the one hand, additional costs to the sewage system as a whole come back to every taxpayer eventually. But it can get more personal.

Grease, wipes and other flushed items make their very own minibergs in your sewage lateral lines; if you have to call the City of St. John’s to clear that lateral, it could cost you several hundred dollars.

What can you flush? Human waste and toilet paper.

Don’t be part of the ’berg. Be part of the solution.