Do you have dish duty this holiday season? A few wrong moves could lead to a holiday disaster for your sewer system. To avoid having to call the emergency plumber, follow these simple steps to keep your sewer system flowing out and away from your home:
- Don’t use your garbage disposal. Your wastewater system isn’t designed to carry food particles. Even when chopped up well, food particles cling to pipe walls and build up over time, causing blockages and backups. Scrape your plates directly into your kitchen garbage can.
- Keep a strainer in your sink to catch any food particles that might escape your scraping, and regularly dump the strainer out into your garbage can.
- Never pour fats, oils, or grease down the sink. Use a paper towel to wipe out pans after cooking. If there’s too much to wipe up, pour it into a disposable container and toss it in the trash. You can also dispose of larger amounts of oil through SPSA’s Household Hazardous Waste program.
- Don’t try to beat the fats by chasing them down the drain with hot water. That might carry them further down the pipe line, but do you know how many feet of sewer pipes exist underneath your house and in your yard? That hot water will only take it so far and you’ll just be moving the blockage further down your line.
Keep in mind that homeowners are responsible for all repairs to the sewer system on their property. That portion of pipes does not belong to the City. Sewer problems can be quite costly to repair, so do what you can now to avoid icky backups in the future.