Everything that goes down your drains or toilet ends up in pipes, pumps, treatment plants, and eventually back to local streams and lakes, where we get our drinking water.
Certain items—especially flushable wipes, fat and grease—can form clogs resulting in nasty sewer backups that are expensive to remove and repair. Other items like household cleaning products, motor oil, paints, and medicines can negatively impact water quality in streams and lakes and create challenges in the water and wastewater treatment processes.
Upper Trinity Regional Water District is working with several other entities to promote a regional campaign to Defend Your Drains. You can learn more at DefendYourDrainsNorthTexas.com.
Keep Your Pipes Working & Water Safe
Avoid backups and help us keep your water clean. These items and your pipes/waterways don’t mix well:
- Flushable wipes
- Feminine hygiene products
- Fat (cooking oils, etc.)
- Greases (bacon drippings, etc.)
- Cleaning products
- Motor oil
- Paints
- Medicines
- Throw away wipes, feminine products and fats/greases
- Bring expired medicine to your local police department anytime or to a National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day event near you. Check with your pharmacy for more ideas
- Bring paint, motor oil, some cleaning products to one of our hazardous waste disposal locations
Keep Your Pipes Working & Water Safe
Just because wipes and feminine hygiene products say they are flushable, doesn’t mean they should be. They don’t break down in the water like toilet paper, meaning that they can cause serious damage to your pipes and our wastewater treatment process. Wipes in particular can clog pipes, pumps and other components of treatment systems that are often costly to repair. This may mean higher bills for consumers in the future. The alternative? Simply throw them in the trash.
Learn more about Why Toilets Aren’t Trashcans