JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-RANDOLPH, Texas –
Just because you flush human waste down the toilet doesn’t mean the San Antonio Water System sewers are waste disposal units.
Sewers are designed to take away wastewater from sinks and baths, as well as toilet paper and human waste flushed down the toilet.
But hundreds of people cause blockages in sewers or damage to the environment by putting trash down the toilet. Just because an item is called disposable doesn’t mean it is safe to flush. Instead you should bag it and put it in the garbage. Don’t flush it!
Our sewers are not designed to cope with modern disposable products. As a result these items can cause blockages. The drains connecting your home or place of work to the main sewer are only big enough to carry water, toilet paper and human waste. They are often no wider than four inches.
Around 75 percent of blockages involve disposable items. To avoid drain pain and a drain on resources, remember to bag it and put in the garbage. Don’t flush it!
Disposable products, such as cotton balls, condoms, diapers and plastics can find their way into the environment if they are flushed down the drain. To prevent damage to the environment, the following items should be disposed of in the ways recommended:
• Cotton balls, feminine products, bandages, diapers, plastics and dental floss should be disposed of in the garbage along with other household trash.
• Condoms, tampons and applicators should be wrapped and disposed of in the trash.
Grease in sewer pipes causes sewer maintenance problems for the 502nd Civil Engineer Squadron and SAWS. Never pour grease in your sink drain and try to use your garbage disposal less.
Grease is a byproduct of cooking. It comes from meat, lard, oil, shortening, butter, margarine, food scraps, baking goods, sauces and dairy products.
When grease washes down the sink, it sticks to the insides of the pipes that connect your home or place of work to the SAWS sewer. It also coats the insides of SAWS sewer pipes.
Eventually, the grease can build up until it completely blocks sewer pipes. That can create difficult and expensive maintenance problems. Blocked sewer pipes can cause raw sewage to back up into your home or place of work, or overflow into streets and streams.
Garbage disposals do not keep grease out of sewer pipes. Products that claim to dissolve grease may dislodge a blockage, but will only cause problems farther on down the line when the grease hardens again.
Reducing foreign objects going down the kitchen sink prevents sewer problems.
Following these dos and don’ts will help you avoid expensive sewer backups, plumbing emergencies and resources to cover sewer maintenance and repairs, while helping protect water quality in your community.
Do
• Recycle used cooking oil or properly dispose of it by pouring it into a sealable container and placing the sealed container in the trash.
• Scrape food scraps into the trash, not the sink.
• Wipe pots, pans and dishes with dry paper towels before rinsing or washing them, then throw away the paper towels.
• Place a catch basket or screen over the sink drain when rinsing dishware or when peeling or trimming food to catch small scraps that would otherwise be washed down the drain. Throw the scraps in the trash.
• Rinse dishes and pans with cold water before putting them in the dishwasher. Hot water melts the fats, oils and grease off the dishes and into the sewer pipes. Further down the sewer pipe, the hot water will cool and the fats, oils and grease will clog the pipes.
Don’t
• Use a garbage disposal or food grinder. Grinding food up before rinsing it down the drain does not remove fats, oils and grease; it just makes the pieces smaller. Even non-greasy food scraps can plug your home’s sewer lines. Do not put food of any kind down the drain.
• Pour cooking oil, pan drippings, bacon grease, salad dressings, or sauces down the sink or toilet, or into street gutters or storm drains.
• Use cloth towels or rags to scrape plates or clean greasy or oily dishware. When you wash them, the grease will end up in the sewer.
• Run water over dishes, pans, fryers and griddles to wash oil and grease down the drain.
Correction made July 29th: In this article there were references to the San Antonio Water Systems (SAWS). For clarification SAWS is not a provider for all Joint Base San Antonio sewer systems. The San Antonio River Authority (SARA) owns the sewer system on Randolph as established by a utility privatization (UP) contract established in 2003. They are a different organization and their policies and procedures differ from SAWS. SAWS does not treat the sewer from Randolph that service is provided by Cibolo Creek Municipal Authority (CCMA).