By SARAH CULTON
sarah.culton@leaderpub.com

Earlier this year, Ontwa Township’s wastewater system paid to have a 100-pound mass of wet-wipes, kitchen fat and other materials removed from the sewer system’s main lift station. The mass was so enmeshed in the system that it had to be cut out with box cutters.
“It wasn’t pretty,” Wastewater System Administrator John Harsh said.
To help prevent blockages and build-ups like this in the future, Ontwa’s wastewater management is starting a mail campaign to educate residents about what can and cannot be flushed down the toilet. The mail campaign will be rolled out within the next few weeks. Residents will be sent a letter about the issue and a flyer about not flushing items that do not dissolve in water.
On the “do not flush” list are paper towels, moist wipes, even the ones that advertise as flushable, bandaids and medical dressings, dental floss, strings, feminine hygiene products, medications and pharmaceuticals, cooking oils, fats and grease, plastic wrappers and bags, underwear, towels or rags, toilet bowl scrub pads, sponges, bagged animal waste and fish gravel.
Because these items do not dissolve in water, they clog sewage pumps.
“Toilet paper is about [all that can be flushed],” Harsh said. “These things don’t go away. You flush and it seems like it goes away, but that’s not how it works. It just ends up somewhere else.”
The build-up issue due to flushing problems has been going on for years, Harsh said.
A few years back, someone flushed a mop head down the toilet, which flooded some people’s homes.
“This is ongoing. It’s extensive,” Harsh said. “This stuff builds up, clogs pumps, it can even destroy controls and sensors. We need to do something about it.”
The issue of build-up from non-flushable items is hardly just an Ontwa problem. Wastewater systems all over the country have had clogging issues, particularly since the rise of “flushable” wipes that fail to break apart despite marketing claims. In 2013, sewage workers in London removed a 10-ton mass composed of kitchen fat and other materials from their system. Several states, including Maryland and Washington, D.C., have proposed legislation to create more stringent testing on products labeled flushable in an attempt to protect sewage lines.
In addition to being widespread, the problem is costly. Though world-wide numbers cannot be confirmed, a 2016 Atlantic article estimated that the international cost of sewage blockages caused by insoluble materials to be in the billions of dollars.
Ontwa Township’s wastewater management recently spent $25,000 to clean the gravity sewer line in the vicinity of Juno Lake. In addition to this, the wastewater system cleans each of its 17 lift stations a couple times a year, which can cost up to $1,300.
“That money adds up big time,” Harsh said.
The cleaning fees are paid for using the wastewater operating fund, which residents fund by paying a user fee.
Harsh hopes that the letter sent out to residents through the mail campaign will decrease wastewater management costs, and allow them to keep their user fee at a low cost.
Ontwa’s mail campaign will cost about $2,000, but Harsh said that if wastewater management can eliminate just one major cleaning a year, the campaign will pay for itself.
“If we can save a few percent and keep the system running the way that it should be, it benefits everybody,” Harsh said.
Ultimately, the goal of the mail campaign and the point wastewater management wants to get across is simple.
“It’s a toilet,” Harsh said. “Not a trashcan.”