Don`T Flush Rags, Wet Wipes Down The Toilet

Some Braham area residents have flushed bras, rags and T-shirts down the toilet, but what they may not realize is it costs taxpayer dollars to clear such materials out of the pumps.

[But the one real, real big problem is like diaper wipes or Wet Wipes that people use to freshen themselves up after they use the bathroom," Victor Fanth, Braham`s water and wastewater superintendent, said during an interview on Feb. 5. [Those are terrible. Those have a lot of fiber and a bonding material in them, which causes them to wrap around our pumps."

Fanth said though [flushable" is printed on some wipes packages, it`s not good to flush them down the toilet.

Braham`s lift station that pumps the wastewater to the water treatment plant is about 19 years old, Fanth explained in his presentation during the Braham City Council meeting on Feb. 2.

Fanth said that the claw on a bracket that mounts to the pump had deteriorated. So his crew installed one new pump and a used claw in a good condition about two weeks ago. However, they noticed when they ran the pump it was working inefficiently.

[We`re pretty confident the base structure is just as in bad shape," Fanth said.

Fanth believes that the pump was pushing about 50% of the liquid through, whereas the other 50% is spilling back into the wet well. He`s certain that the problem indicated the bottom of the lift station needs a new base structure and equipment. The city also needs another pump to replace the other 19-year-old pump, Fanth said.

After some deliberation, the council approved the purchase and installation of a new pump and equipment priced at about $13,575. The council also approved a new Dell computer with Windows 10 operating system and Office 2019, as well as a program called Supervisory Control Data Acquisition to help with efficiency and more. The technology, software and hardware will cost about $14,989.

The installation will begin sometime between April or May, Fanth said. By then the lift station will be able to function properly. However, Fanth discourages people from flushing items that they shouldn`t, he said.

[Because it still gives us grief down at the water or wastewater plant," Fanth said. [We would prefer them not to flush them at all. - The biggest thing is `flushable` wipes. That`s the biggest thing. Every wastewater operator hates them because they do nothing but cause us tons of problems."