The Mobile Area Water and Sewer System is spending big to clear items from its pipes that should never have been flushed in the first place.
At one MAWSS plant, a $1.5 million project is underway to fish debris out of the system that customers are sending through the sewer, according to the utility.
The industry calls it a plumbing pandemic, and disposable wipes are at the forefront. Grease is the other major culprit, and the two work together to clog lines.
At the Eslava Creek MAWSS lift station, what looks from above like dirty water is actually a mat of grease and debris roughly 12 feet deep. Terry Herman, lift station supervisor, said employees reeled out a sample showing the gunk chunking through the system.
“It looks like dirt, but it’s grease and debris,” Herman said. “It’s created a mat and below that’s about 12 feet of actual waste water.”
A closer look revealed grease, cotton balls, Q-tips, condoms, toothbrushes, towels and disposable wipes. Herman said crews also find syringes, feminine products, hair, fishing line, coke bottles and washrags.
“When a disposable wipe is flushed and it catches on or snags on the inside of a pipe then fats and grease leach on to it and then you have a perpetuating snowball effect,” Herman said.
Crews already vacuum the mat of debris and grease by hand twice a year. A single station will cost $1.5 million to try to remove the rags and debris coming to it, MAWSS said.
“The end result is it’s the customer that has to pay for maintenance of what we do,” Herman said.
MAWSS is designing screens for the lift station that would stop the mat before it forms. The utility has also launched a program called “It’s Easy to be Ungreasy,” where customers can pick up a free grease container at select locations and return it when full.