WEF Highlights

Florida outreach campaign centers around spoof horror-movie trailer The horrors of fatbergs — those accumulations of grease, baby wipes, paper towels, and other trash that combine to block wastewater pipes — are very real for water resource recovery facilities (WRRFs). JEA, a public utility in Jacksonville, Fla., decided to have a little fun bringing these […]

In New Hampshire, the City of Keene worked with local high school students to create a music video for “Don’t Flush That,” a song featuring a manhole superhero and set to the tune of Bruce Springsteen’s “Pink Cadillac.” Lyrics advise against flushing used baby wipes; cloth and paper rags; fats, oils, and grease; and plastic […]

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has approved a final consent order with Nice-Pak Products Inc. that requires the company to stop advertising moist toilet tissue and cloth as flushable or safe for sewer or septic systems unless it can substantiate those claims. In May 2015, FTC filed a complaint that Nice-Pak violated the FTC Act […]

Many wastewater treatment professionals agree that clogged pipes can cause big and costly problems. As these problems arise, Water Environment Federation (WEF; Alexandria, Va.) members are documenting costs spent on maintenance and repairs and are working to identify culprits. Clogs from items that do not belong in water resource recovery facility (WRRF) flows are not […]

The packages of wet wipes that have continued to populate store shelves nationwide during the past few years also are accumulating elsewhere — both in collection systems and outreach efforts by the Water Environment Federation (WEF; Alexandria, Va.). Through its outreach efforts, conferences, and magazines, WEF is helping raise awareness on how wet wipes can […]

WEF members work to solve nondispersibles problem   Wastewater treatment systems operate 24-hours a day, 7-days a week — that is, until an item that doesn’t belong makes its way into the system, clogging pipes and causing headaches for operators. Defining nondispersibles Perpetrators mucking up the system are known as “nondispersibles,” which currently means anything […]