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My mind has been in the toilet lately. Wait, maybe “on the toilet” is a better way to put it — or perhaps “around the toilet” is more appropriate framing.
We’re weeks into the potty learning process with our 2-year-old son. He’s making considerable progress toward consistency … but we’re not quite there all the way just yet. It’s fascinating (albeit at times frustrating) to experience as a parent, and I try to remember those words probably apply to his perspective as well.
“The potty” is an omnipresent focus for us right now. That’s probably why the press release I got the other day from the Central Contra Costa Sanitary District (aka Central San) stood out so much.
The agency — which provides sewer service from the northern Tri-Valley in parts of San Ramon and Danville through into Lamorinda, Walnut Creek and my neck of the woods in Pleasant Hill and all the way up to Concord and Martinez — was part of a collaborative statewide study whose results were released this month.
The title of the announcement says it all: “What’s Clogging the Pipes? The Largest Sewage Collection Study Has the Answers.”
The results are what you might expect (a bunch of materials we’re told not to flush down the toilet), but the specific percentages and takeaways are intriguing.
Reviewing items collected from caught in the pipes and collection systems at the two study sites, the analysts found that 52.8% of the materials were paper towels or other non-flushable paper products, 34.1% of the materials were wipes of a type explicitly labeled with a “Do Not Flush” symbol, 7.2% feminine hygiene products, 4.9% trash and 0.9% nonwoven wipes labeled as flushable.
These data points are critical in understanding how to direct consumer awareness efforts, according to Emily Barnett, communications and government relations manager for Central San.
“Central San has been dealing with the impacts of wipes in our sewer system and educating customers about their implications for about 15 years,” Barnett told me over the weekend. “To understand the success of the customer education outreach and identify what customers are flushing, you must see it firsthand,” she added. “It may sound gross, but we are passionate environmental and public health advocates for our customers.”
Barnett said Central San was not shocked to see wipes so high up on the list – that’s facial, cleaning and (as I’m very familiar with) baby wipes, which should never go down the toilet.
In fact, it was money from wipes manufacturers that funded the study, which was done in accordance with California’s wipes labeling law Assembly Bill 818. Organized by the Responsible Flushing Alliance, the California Association of Sanitation Agencies and the Association of the Nonwoven Fabrics Industry, the analysts tested the systems at the Central San plant in Martinez and the Inland Empire Utilities Agency in Southern California last October.
What did surprise Barnett and others was the significant percentage of paper towels in the sewer system. “Our hunch is that paper towels are being used to clean the bathroom, and instead of being thrown in the trash, they are being flushed down the toilet,” she surmised.
She said the study results will help inform new ways for Central San to educate its customers that “the toilet is not a trash can and only the 3 P’s — pee, poop and toilet paper — should be flushed.”
What’s clever about the campaigning from Central San and others, including Dublin San Ramon Services District, is it goes beyond asking people just to “do the right thing” by also highlighting the costs involved.
“We call it the true cost of wipes,” Barnett said. “What seems like an inexpensive convenience item to the consumer, if not properly disposed of in the trash, wipes can be costly for customers in home overflows, sewer fees and environmental impacts.”
The study estimates local public agencies throughout the state are spending more than $47 million per year overall fixing system problems caused by improper flushing.
DSRSD, which provides services in Pleasanton, Dublin and parts of San Ramon, spends the time and money to remove up to four tons of non-flushable products from its wastewater system per month, according to public information officer Erin Steffen.
So the Central San study very much echoes what DSRSD encounters at its treatment plant on a daily basis, Steffen said.
“When non-flushable products enter our wastewater system, they can build up and create clogs that lead to overflows which are expensive to address,” Steffen told me this week. “When these clogs are found in private sewer laterals, residents are responsible for the cost of removing the clog and cleaning up the mess, but when the clogs build up in the collections system, the agency — and its customers — end up footing the bill.”
View the full study at flushsmart.org. And remember to think before flushing.
Editor’s note: Jeremy Walsh is the editorial director for the Embarcadero Media Foundation’s East Bay Division. His “What a Week” column is a recurring feature in the Pleasanton Weekly, Livermore Vine and DanvilleSanRamon.com.