Sewer Wars: Think Twice Before Disposing Those Wipes

Before you flush, the City of Palo Alto wants people to think about what's going down.

"Sanitary wipes are indeed one perennial source of sewer clogs," said Debra Katz, a spokeswoman with the city's utilities department. "Wipes are but one of the many things people toss down drains and flush down toilets that inevitably lead to back-ups."

According to Katz, she's been amazed at some of the items the sewer cleaning crews have found, including "giant globs of cooking fat from roasting pans, entire diapers, large cleaning rags and cement!"

"Some people pour the leftover liquid cement from a home project into their drains without considering it is going to solidify on its way through the sewer pipe," she said.

According to a KCBS radio segment Wednesday, disposable wipes—whether to clean your kitchen or your baby's behind—don't decompose like toilet paper.

Another concern for the city in its "endless sewer wars," Katz said, is the Darth tree roots, which invade the sewer and trap all kinds of waste.

"We try to educate the public that these sewer-clogging materials belong in the trash, not down drains," she said. "And especially with the issue of possible crossbores, if people do have a clog, we’ve tried to make it clear they should call us first."