- Flushable wipes are damaging pumps from San Diego's sewer system.
- Rudy Torres Jr, General manager of San Diego MUD #1, said the damages are expensive and could raise rates to the public if the problem continues.
A small item found in some bathroom is causing big headaches for the San Diego Municipal Utilities District (MUD) Number one. Most of us want cleanliness and convenience when using the bathroom, but the San Diego MUD’s General Manager Rudy Torres said those two things could literally be flushing your money down the drain.
Torres talked to KRIS 6 New Neighborhood News Reporter Melissa Trevino about those flushable wipes.
“The problem is what it is made of. The flushable has a resin-poly - it is made up of basically plastic. When people flush them, they intertwine with each other and look-like a towel, like a rag. And they get stuck in our pumps,” Torres said. "You can flush a sock down the toilet but it, and these wipes, won't disintegrate."
Torres and his crews are fishing these wipes out of their lift stations. There are 15 of these stations around town, each with two pumps. When the wipes that go down the toilet and get into the sewer system, they don't disintegrate but tangle in the pumps instead.
“Our pumps are breaking. Submerged pumps - they’re breaking and the repairs are very costly,” he said.
Torres said the cost to repair a pump varies from $4,000 to $8,000. Money, he said, they don’t have.
“It causes a problem for us. Which eventually, it’s going to reach them,” he said.
Torres said they may have to raise the rates for city amenities if this continues.
Life-long San Diego resident Victor Trevino said he does use the flushable wipes but knows not to throw them in the toilet.
“Whoever’s doing this - I think - is not educated or they don’t pay attention. You can use a trash can on the side and just put it in the trash can. And just don’t flush it,” Trevino said.
Plumber Christopher Craddock, who is the owner of Way Maker Plumbing, is familiar with the damages caused by the wipes.
“I would suggest - do not flush it unless you want plumbers at your house,” Craddock said.
He’s been in the plumbing business for two decades and said every three out of five houses he services has to do with flushable wipes.
“They do flush. But whenever they do get inside the pipes - if they hang up on something it’s gonna build like a dam inside the pipe. And it’ll just keep building and then you’ll have clogs,” Craddock said.
Plumbers said the best practice to help save money is not throw wipes down the toilet.
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