Front page on the Lawton Constitution last week because this is a MAJOR issue.

Glenn Hinton, the City of Lawton's Wastewater Superintendent, is one of our Pecan Valley residents and can speak authoritatively to the destructiveness and expense created for the sewer utility by flushing so called "flushable wipes" and other things besides human waste and toilet paper. When these "flushable wipes" combine with grease that is rinsed down drains it forms "fatbergs" which obstruct pipes, destroy pumps, and generally cause huge expenses. This problem has increased over 10X in the past 4 years.

"Flushable Wipes" combined with grease cost Pecan Valley over $80,000 last year and only 300 of our residences are on our sewer system. The City of Lawton levies taxes from which they pay these expenses. Pecan Valley is not an incorporated community so cannot levy taxes, thus we are going to see the sewer rates for those on the PV RWD sewer system rise. If you are not on the sewer, you will not see this rate increase as water only customers don't pay sewer charges to us but pay your own -- thus all these things apply to you with regard to your septic system as well.

Whether "flushable wipes", feminine products, condoms, diapers, or barbie dolls, all this stuff has to be removed from our sewer after it leaves your home and before it gets to our sewage lagoons. Only liquid enters our lagoons to be processed and returned to the environment as pure water.

My scan cut off some of this article, but you can get 90% by clicking the button below.

"Flushable" Wipes flush away dollars