What's Flushable

The information contained in this article is not intended as legal advice and may no longer be accurate due to changes in the law. Consult NHMA's legal services or your municipal attorney.

Municipalities of all sizes are talking about a new problem, as sewer systems are being overwhelmed by materials not designed to be flushed. These materials will disappear from the toilet but are not designed for what follows. Unlike toilet paper that will rapidly lose its strength when wet and break into tiny pieces during the flushing action, these products are made of non-woven fabric; they hold together better than toilet paper and do not break down as readily. These non-woven fabric products are more commonly called wipes.

Wipes that were once used only for your babies’ bottoms have become a $13 billion dollar industry in 2014. Manufacturers have found a large growing market for these wipes by simply changing the size, texture, design, and infused lotion and creating thousands of new products. These new disposable wipe products now are marketed as traditional baby wipes, adult bathroom wipes, makeup remover wipes, cleaning wipes, and wipes with specific medicated applications.

These new disposable wipes often used within the bathroom are poorly labeled. Some products will advise the user to “dispose of properly,” while others will use tiny text informing the user that they “should not flush these products.” The worst of these products will claim their product is flushable without any scientific testing to ensure their compatibility with your septic or sewer systems. These products will often state that the user should “only flush one or two” wipes at a time.

People have always flushed products that cannot be treated by sewer or septic systems, such as dental floss, paper towels, cigarette butts, tampons, condoms, and cotton swabs. Even an occasional wipe can pass through the system as it will be removed by screens at the wastewater treatment facility and be sent to the landfill. Our wastewater treatment systems are designed to pass and remove small quantities of these items, but many municipalities are now at the point where these items combined create a mess.

“People assume when they flush the toilet, [the wipes] are gone, never to be seen again,” says Jay Pimpare, regional pretreatment coordinator at EPA Region 1 (New England). “But 15 feet, 20 feet, 2,000 feet, 3,000 feet... somewhere along the line, it has a strong potential to clog.” When a clog occurs, it can cost the municipality thousands or even millions of dollars to deal with it. Additionally, municipalities could face enforcement action from the EPA if too many sewer overflows occur from wipes. Municipalities are required by the EPA to maintain their sewer system and to take any other actions necessary to avoid potential sewer overflows.

To help prevent the possibility of sewer overflows from wipes, cities and towns have two possible solutions: 1) purchase equipment that can better handle wipes and other materials, or 2) educate the public on “What to Flush.” Most municipalities tend to favor public education, as it can be cheaper than upgrading equipment, and public education campaigns can also be undertaken much more quickly.

To assist municipalities, the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (DES) has created some basic educational materials for New Hampshire municipalities to use in order to educate citizens on what can be flushed. The DES “What’s Flushable?” brochure is available for purchase, and, for local public events, municipalities can borrow DES’s display booth, which shows many products that cannot be flushed.

While DES can assist municipalities and provide some basic materials, each city and town will have to decide how they can best educate the public. Throughout New Hampshire we are seeing a variety of different educational campaigns, such as the three below.

The City of Rochester had one particular pump station on Kirsten Avenue that required constant maintenance to remove clogs from their pumps. The city left the “What’s Flushable?” brochures on the doors of 30 homes that were all connected to the pump station. “The response to the brochures was positive,” said Dave Green, Chief Plant Operator for the Rochester Wastewater Treatment Facility. “The users don’t know when their actions are an issue but once they are informed, they respond.” Rochester now sees fewer solids, fewer clogged pumps, and pump maintenance has been reduced.

The Tilton Sewer Commission took a different approach: they have posted specific information on their web site (www.tiltonnh.org/content/sewer.html) titled “WHAT NOT TO FLUSH!” They also have documented some of the extra costs to the ratepayers for dealing with clogged pumps. In addition, they mailed the “What’s Flushable?” brochure to every sewer user in town. “The Sewer Commission has received many positive comments about the brochure,” said Johanna Ames, administrator of the Tilton Sewer Commission. “It is too early to tell if there will be a positive impact such as reduced maintenance costs.”

The City of Keene is also impacted by non-flushable items. Eric Swope, Keene’s Pretreatment Coordinator, was inspired by the Singing Sewermen with Thames Water in the United Kingdom, who sings at Christmas to inform the public not to put wipes into their sewer. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1rItAH60MU)  Mr. Swope wrote alternative lyrics to Bruce Springsteen’s “Pink Cadillac” titled “Don’t Flush That”; he then worked with the local Film Studies Program at Keene High School’s Cheshire Career Center to make it into a video. “The PSA hasn’t exactly gone viral (yet), but it’s getting out there (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtK0k9Ilelw).  It has been playing on the local Keene cable TV station” said Swope, “and DES put a link to the video in a newsletter a few months ago. It’s now on the National Association of Clean Water Agencies’ (NACWA) website.” Mr. Swope said that “people may feel free to use this video in whatever way they find it useful to address the problem of non-flushables in their sanitary sewer systems.”

One thing is clear: if cities and towns wish to save money and protect their sewer systems, they now have to educate users on how to properly use their utility. Each municipality will have to determine how to best reach their constituents, be it through traditional brochures, modern websites, or with highly entertaining videos. This is a new role for many of our wastewater systems which in the past only had to deal with treating polluted water. Our new mission includes informing the public that these wastewater systems are designed for the “3 P’s” (pee, poop, and paper). The alternative is to build a system to handle the new types of products being flushed, but this would be significantly expensive. Ultimately the users will have to decide whether they wish to use the systems as designed or pay to upgrade the systems.

Ray Gordon is Septage Coordinator for the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services, Wastewater Engineering Bureau. Ray can be reached at 603.271.3571 or by email, ray.gordon@des.nh.gov.