Be Careful What You Flush
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- It's so easy to dump stuff in the sink and flush it down the garbage disposal, but should you?
Don't flush old medications down the drain. Baby wipes, kitty litter and even coffee grounds should be tossed or composted, according to Eric Lindhult, General Manager of the Upper Moreland-Hatboro Joint Sewer Authority. You'll save yourself a lot of hassle and cash keeping grease and oils from the sink.
"We did have a retail facility that on Christmas Eve called us up about a sewer back up, and it turns out that several of our manholes were full of grease up to three-feet thick," Lindhult said. "Our crew had to remove over 200 gallons of thick, grease products that had hardened in our sewer and blocking it up."
Treatment takes 18 hours and once clean, the water is emptied into the Pennypack Creek, so with tongue firmly in cheek, Lindhult explains.
"We do treat biological products in the sewage treatment plant, but medications are not removed by them," Lindhult said. "These chemicals they flow right through the plant and into the creek and once in the creek they could possibly result in fish that have low blood pressure, less anxiety and erections that last up to four hours."
You don't want the blame for that.
