‘Flushable’ wipes cause $500K sewer fix

POTTSTOWN » Sometimes, you just can’t believe what’s on the label.

And Justin Keller, Pottstown’s interim borough manager would like those connected to Pottstown’s sewer system to think twice before buying baby wipes labeled as ‘flushable.’

Not only are they not so “flushable,” they have become expensive — to the tune of $500,000 — for everyone, not just those who buy them.

“One of the issues we’re encountering more and more frequently down at the wastewater treatment plant is these so-called flushable wipes that people are putting into our collection system,” Keller told council March 7.

“It’s now become such a problem that its not only clogging up individual homeowner’s pipes, the mains and everything else, its also getting down to the wastewater plant and starting to jam things up there as well,” said Keller.

“Please do not flush those types of materials. This is a $500,000 project we’re going to have to undertake just to combat this issue,” Keller said.

He was referring to a new screening system that is to be installed as the waste carried through the sewer pipes reaches the plant to filter out grit, large objects, rags and, now, flushable wipes.

Keller said Pottstown is applying for a state grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development to pay for the project.

“We’re hoping we’ll get the grant because this is a unique project dealing with an emerging problem,” Keller said.

The Pottstown Borough Authority is also undertaking another expensive project at the opposite end of its wastewater treatment plant operation — the sludge dryer.

Sludge is the material left over after the microbes and other biological processes at the plan consume and digest the waste brought there by the sewer system.

“Please do not flush those types of materials. This is a $500,000 project we’re going to have to undertake just to combat this issue.” Justin Keller, Interim Borough Manager

When adequately dried, it can be sold for land applications in agriculture which saves the Pottstown systems millions of dollars in landfill tipping fees.

For the past decade or so, Pottstown has wrestled with a system that requires frequent repairs, in part because of how frequently it is used.

Keller said bids for a new system are now out on the street and the authority is expecting the cost to come in between $2 million and $4 million.