The City of Jackson has urged residents to stop flushing bathroom wipes down the toilet. The items are causing sewer clogs.
The label may say flushable, but those wipes take too long to break down and can cause clogs that could send sewage back into homes.
Jackson’s public works director, Mike Osborn, said fixing those clogs takes time and money. “It usually takes one or two people,” Osborn explained, “and depending on how bad the clog is, how long they’re going to have to be there, so there’s a lot of variables in that. I will say, it’s not cheap.”
Osborn said one location on the southeast side of Jackson has been particularly troublesome. “We have one stretch of sewer main,” he said, “and we’ve been out there to jet it six times in the last year. We send a sewer truck with a jet nozzle through the sewer to unclog. When it’s clogged, you have to jet it out.”
Along with wipes, clogs are caused by things like rags and diapers. Osborn said those items should go in the trash, rather than down the toilet. Only toilet paper and human waste should be flushed.
