Residents on Prince Rupert’s Omineca Avenue received letters from the City of Prince Rupert last week asking for cooperation in regards to the sewer system.
The area of the City is one that is serviced by a lift station with pumps and is therefore more sensitive than areas where sewer is gravity fed.
According to Public Works, the pumps at the Omineca location are being replaced and maintained more often than others in the City because items such as tampons, dental floss and even disposable diapers are accumulating there.
“Dental floss is extremely strong. It gets wrapped around the impeller on the pumps and causes problems. Some of the feminine products have a string attached and when they get wet they expand and really clog things up,” said Public Works Operations Manager Garin Gardiner who authored the
letter.
In addition to items with strings attached, workers are also sifting through paper towels, baby wipes, Q-Tips, condoms, other plastic items and sometimes even a disposable mop head.
“Those things don’t break down. Even Kleenex has a note on the box telling people not to flush it,” Gardiner said.
City workers routinely maintain the pumps, but if a pump burns out it’s a $5,000 price tag to replace it. And if an alarm goes off on a Saturday or Sunday because a lead lag pump has failed, then there’s the cost of overtime.
It’s not the first time Gardiner has sent out a letter asking for toiletry cooperation. He said where sewer is being handled by a lift station there can be issues.
“We did have another area that we had problems with and we sent out letters,” he said.
When he was asked if the letters helped, there was pause.
“No. Some people are still using the toilet as a garbage can. At the end of the day, the toilet is just meant for one thing,” he said.
Residents living on the street were surprised to see the letter.
Jennifer Nelson said she read the list of things that should not go down the toilet to her children.
“We told our kids we know it’s not us but somebody’s doing it. They were quite horrified by the list. We’re mindful of what we put in our toilet, because we’re always going camping. I think 3-ply toilet paper is even a problem sometimes,” Nelson said.
Others in the neighbourhood said the list of items made sense and one woman said it was gross to see what’s being flushed.
One man shook his head and said if you grew up on a sceptic system you learned early that nothing else belongs down the toilet
If things don’t improve, Prince Rupert may need to take the lead of other communities that aren’t beating around the bush when it comes to toilet
etiquette.
In Rossland, Summerland and Fredericton, NS, city websites encourage residents to be mindful of the high cost of lift station repairs and to be responsible about the sewer system.
“If you don’t eat it first, you should find another way to dispose of it,” suggests the City of Fredericton.
Summerland citizens are reminded that “grease can create larger oil or grease balls that impact the hydraulic capacity of the pumps”.
Rossland has a lengthy section titled Responsibilities for Residential Sewer Uses.
And last year the City of Kiev, Ukraine launched a tampon disposal service to “protect its aging sewer system”.
Aside from sewer maintenance problems, the truth is that everything flushed down Prince Rupert toilets eventually arrives in the harbour through several sewer outflows.
Two years ago Donna Morse-Smith of Prince Rupert was out on a family picnic across the harbour near McNichol Creek. She was beachcombing with her young niece and nephew when she came across a heap of tampons, condoms and sanitary napkins swept up from the tide.
“It was pretty nasty. I got the kids out of there pretty fast,” Morse-Smith recalled.
Gardiner is hopeful the letter will have an impact this time and is encouraging all residents in the City to be mindful.
“We all make assumptions that people know these things, but obviously there are people that don’t,” he said.
