Water Sector News
A snapshot of clean water stories from publications around the country, updated daily!
The Myth of Flushable Wipes
Flushable wipes are marketed as safe for toilets and pipes. However, recent evidence and accounts from industry professionals has shown that this isn’t necessarily the case.
Last October, the Charleston Water System in Charleston, S.C. posted graphic tweets of clogs they sent divers to dig up from their sewers. What the pictures show are massive mounds of wipes that were not broken down after being flushed and formed into large masses of blockage.
Charleston isn’t the only city that’s had this issue though; we have it here in New York, too. Back in 2015, the New York Times wrote a piece about the damage flushable wipes cause to city sewer systems. “The dank clusters, graying and impenetrable, gain mass like demon snowballs as they travel. Pumps clog. Gears falter. Then, there is the final blow, wrought by an intake of sewage that overwhelmed a portion of a north Brooklyn treatment plant,” reads an excerpt from the article.