The Lynn Water & Sewer Commission and Swampscott Public Works Department have seen an increase in sewer backups from residents improperly disposing of sanitary wipes and non-flushable products.
The problem appears to be two-pronged.
As more people are staying home amid statewide coronavirus restrictions, their use of disinfecting wipes, paper towels and cooking grease has increased, officials from both Lynn and Swampscott say.
However, instead of properly discarding those products in the trash, residents are flushing sanitary wipes and paper towels down the toilet, and pouring cooking grease down the drain, which has led to an uptick in clogged pipes and sewer backups.
The main culprit, officials said, appears to be the improper flushing of sanitary wipes, which along with toilet paper and paper towels, has been a household item people have been buying in bulk during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Wipes, they’re definitely the leading cause of our sewer system backups,” said Fred Hogan, Ward 6 City Councilor and Lynn Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant operator. “This is a good time to emphasize that there are no ‘flushable’ wipes. They don’t break down like toilet paper and they clog up sewer interceptors, pipes and pumps.”
The treatment plant, which is operated by Veolia North America, is seeing problems caused by flushing both wipes and paper towels, said Daniel O’Neill, Lynn Water & Sewer Commission executive director, which led LWSC to post a cautionary video to its Facebook page last week.
“They coagulate in the sewer system and they almost dam up and they cause backups,” said O’Neill, noting it could lead to overflows in residential basements and city streets. “With people buying more disinfecting wipes and paper towels we’re just reminding them they can’t flush them down the sewer.”
In the video, Lynn Sewer Superintendent Larry Harris is seen demonstrating the problems caused when “so-called flushable wipes” are improperly flushed.
A LWSC employee is shown in the video using a rake-like tool to lift a wad of wet wipes from a manhole and discard them into a trash can. The purpose of the video is to show that the wipes do not biograde like toilet paper when they’re flushed, according to Harris.
“They do clog sewers and they do cause work, which ultimately costs the commission money, therefore leading to higher sewer rates,” Harris said in the video.
It’s become a major issue in Swampscott, which saw three sewer main backups last week from what the town’s Public Works Director Gino Cresta suspects is largely due to residents flushing disinfecting wipes down the toilet.
“It’s causing a huge problem for us because we’ve had a handful of sewer backups and one of our (sewer) lift stations on Pine Hill Road, the grinder pump was jam-filled with wipes,” said Cresta. “I believe it’s happening because more people are home. We’re getting more waste or more activity.”
Cresta said there have been no issues with backups at the town’s main sewer station on Humphrey Street, as there’s a bigger pump and grinder there, but there have been problems with the town’s remote stations. Since the equipment is smaller, he said the wipes are jamming up the grinder’s blades, which could burn out the motor.
“It’s been more of a problem as of late,” said Cresta. “(People) definitely should not be flushing disinfecting wipes down the toilet.”
Another problem Lynn’s plant has encountered has been from people flushing grease and dumping cooking oil down their kitchen drain, said Hogan, noting that the grease gets pushed back to the plant during heavy rain and causes its screening system to fail.
In addition to warning Lynn residents, Hogan said the city’s plant is sending notices to Swampscott, Nahant and Saugus residents advising them against flushing sanitary wipes, paper towels, baby wipes, tissues and other non-flushable products since the wastewater from those towns flows to Lynn’s plant.
Collectively, Lynn’s plant typically treats an average of 22 million gallons of wastewater each day, but there’s been an increase recently to about 30 million gallons of wastewater flowing to the plant on a daily basis, Hogan said.
If wipes make it through the plant’s screening process, they can cause clogs in the system.
“The solution is just to throw them in the trash can,” said Hogan. “It makes it real easy.”
