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Monster clog found in sewer system from thousands of pounds of flushable wipes

By Shelby Lin Erdman, Cox Media Group National Content Desk
By Shelby Lin Erdman, Cox Media Group National Content Desk

Thousands of pounds of flushable wipes created a monster clog in the sewer system in Charleston, South Carolina.

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It happened last Thursday at the city’s Plum Island Wastewater Treatment Plant, where officials said baby wipes clogged a series of large pumps.

Workers had to use bypass pumps to handle the daily sewage. It took three days to clear the pipes, and it wasn’t pretty.

The center posted photos of the awful-looking mess showing what employees had to remove to clear the smelly backup and get the pipes flowing again.

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“We sent divers 80-90 feet deep into the wet well/raw sewage to search in complete darkness with their hands to find and identify the obstruction,” officials with the treatment center posted on Twitter.

“As we expected, they came up with these large masses of wipes in their first two loads, with more to come.”

That wasn’t all that workers found in the massive clog. They also found a baseball and a big piece of metal.

“Don’t flush stuff like this,” treatment plant officials said.

A photo looking down into a pool of wastewater also shows many other unflushable items.

And those flushable wipes?

Plant officials are trying to get out the word that they’re not flushable after all.

 

Cox Media Group

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