The mess they leave behind looks more like a sci-fi horror scene than plumbing. Soggy, matted wipes tangled with grease and grime, stuck in pipes and pumps, costing the city of Cape Coral time, money and manpower.
The label "flushable" may mean it's possible for the wipes to go down the toilet, but it doesn't mean they go down the way that they should. Flushable wipes don't break down like toilet paper. Instead, city utilities director Jeff Pearson says the wipes float down the sewer system nearly intact, getting caught in old pipes, jamming up lift stations and water treatment pumps.
"We actually use the best pumps in the industry. We use flight pumps, "said Pearson. "The places that we'll see blockages normally are south of Cape Coral Parkway, and some of the older areas. Those are the areas that we're going in and relining pipes."
Pearson says it costs utility customers upwards of $500,000 a year to fix broken equipment caused by these flushable wipes.
"Taxpayers should not have to deal with that sort of burden just so somebody can wipe their butt," said Chris Martin. "It's absolutely deceiving. Flushable, to me, says that once it goes down, it turns into some sort of biological matter, just like whatever else you put in there. I'm all for banning those things."
Pearson says Cape Coral has already relined hundreds of miles of pipeline across the city, but the full job of modernizing the system to prevent leaks and clogs will take another five to ten years.
Until then, city officials have one simple ask: Only toilet paper and human waste should go down the drain....Everything else is a party pooper.
Several cities, including Charleston, South Carolina, have filed lawsuits against wipe manufacturers, prompting some changes in labeling and marketing. Cape Coral officials tell Gulf Coast News they currently have no plans to do the same.