‘Simply not flushable’: Thousands of pounds of wipes clog sewer system

Daily News Article   —   Posted on October 19, 2018

(Compiled from reports at WDSU, ABCNews4, Live5News, Post and Courier) – Baby wipes clogged a series of large pumps last week at the Plum Island Wastewater Treatment Plant in Charleston, South Carolina.

Crews worked 24/7 to get those wipes out of the system. Three days later, the pumps were back to normal. WCIV reports thousands of pounds of baby wipes were collected.

“…We sent divers 80-90 feet deep into the wet well/raw sewage to search in complete darkness with their hands to find and identify the obstruction. As we expected, they came up with these large masses of wipes in their first two loads, with more to come,” Charleston Water tweeted.

One official told the Charleston Post and Courier that other items…contributed to the [giant clog] but wipes are a huge portion of the problem. (In addition, crews also found a baseball and a large piece of metal.)

The company shared pictures of blackened masses created by “flushable wipes.”

Divers for the Charleston Water System found and removed large clumps of baby wipes clogging the pumps.

Mike Saia, communication manager with Charleston Water System, told WCIV he hopes people take note.

“It boils down to the fact that ‘flushable’ wipes simply are not flushable, they may degrade overtime and they may go down your toilet, but they certainly will block up the plumbing in your home, and wreak a lot of havoc in our system, so we would really appreciate any change that people could make,” he said.

When pipes were backed up last Thursday, Charleston Water System hired three divers to collect thousands of pounds of baby wipes over a three-day span.

The wipes are now set aside to dry out before being placed in a wasteland.

Utility officials want people to throw wipes where they belong: in the trash headed to the landfill. Only nonwoven, biodegradable wipes break down in water, like toilet paper. Most commercial brands are woven, more like cloth than tissue.

Clogs in homeowner plumbing as well as sewer lines have gotten so prevalent that at least one New York-based law firm, Robbins Geller, launched a class-action lawsuit against misleading claims from the “flushable” industry.

The wipes industry is expected to sell $2.7 billion in products by 2020, up from $796 million in 2010, despite a gradual shift in the market toward nonwoven alternatives, according to a recent report…

Compiled from reports at WDSU, ABCNews4, Live5News, Post and Courier.