{"id":89238,"date":"2020-04-16T15:24:29","date_gmt":"2020-04-16T21:24:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/with-toilet-paper-in-short-supply-people-are-flushing-other-products-clogging-sewer-lines\/"},"modified":"2020-04-16T21:24:29","modified_gmt":"2020-04-16T21:24:29","slug":"with-toilet-paper-in-short-supply-people-are-flushing-other-products-clogging-sewer-lines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/with-toilet-paper-in-short-supply-people-are-flushing-other-products-clogging-sewer-lines\/","title":{"rendered":"With toilet paper in short supply, people are flushing other products, clogging sewer lines"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Durango
Durango city employees Kelton Richmond, left, Bobby Martinez, center, and Alex Cornish use a high-pressure water system to remove sewer clogs in South Durango. City sewer lines have taken a beating during the coronavirus pandemic as people flush napkins, paper towels and other non-toilet paper products.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

With toilet paper in short supply, the city of Durango is pleading with residents to not flush other paper products, which have been wreaking havoc on sewer lines since the coronavirus outbreak.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew it was coming based on what\u2019s happening in our community with the toilet paper issue,\u201d said Jarrod Biggs, assistant utilities director. \u201cBut now we\u2019re really starting to see it manifest.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the coronavirus spread across the U.S., people started to panic-buy, assuming there could be long days and nights of quarantine or self-isolation ahead.<\/p>\n

But it wasn\u2019t milk or bread that flew off the shelves. Yes, some people cleared out canned foods. But by far, the most prized item in grocery stores became toilet paper.<\/p>\n

Even now, several weeks after the coronavirus became a part of daily life, toilet paper is hard to come by.<\/p>\n

\"The
The \u201cWarthog,\u201d developed by StoneAge Inc., a Durango company, uses water and pressure to remove sewer clogs and tree roots from an 8-inch clay pipe in South Durango.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Tamra O\u2019Toole, the front-end manager at Albertsons, said in the first few weeks of the outbreak, a shipment of toilet paper would last about 30 minutes before being sold out.<\/p>\n

Now, supplies last a little longer, but not by much. When a shipment arrives, it\u2019s usually gone that day, even as the store limits customers to one purchase per person.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s slowing down, but you\u2019re not guaranteed to find it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

As a result, people are using alternative paper products, which are causing a host of issues for the city\u2019s utilities department.<\/p>\n

Biggs said the city has been doubling its efforts to clean sewer lines to avoid backups.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re doing additional diligence,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it\u2019s a matter of when, not if, we have a backup, particularly if people are flushing other paper products.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paper towels, napkins and so-called flushable wipes should not be flushed because those products do not degrade in water like toilet paper.<\/p>\n

The No. 1 threat, Biggs said, is a backup in a person\u2019s own home.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the most likely place to have a problem,\u201d he said. \u201cIf people are flushing things they shouldn\u2019t, it\u2019s more likely to get stuck in their own pipe, before it ever gets to the city\u2019s main lines.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The
The city of Durango uses a remote camera to inspect sewer pipes.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Tree
Tree roots and other debris penetrate the top of an 8-inch clay sewer line in south Durango. The white material along the sides of the pipe is grease from the residential area.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Blockages are also showing up at the city\u2019s wastewater treatment plant, where the plant\u2019s bar screen, a mechanical system that removes solids, is working overtime.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s catching a lot of paper products, but sadly, it can\u2019t catch every bit,\u201d Biggs said. \u201cAnd if it gets to the plant, it goes into our solid waste system, so our dumpsters are filling up quicker.\u201d<\/p>\n

So why, in a global pandemic that affects the respiratory system, not the gastrointestinal system, is toilet paper the coveted product?<\/p>\n

While people who study these sorts of human tendencies are still trying to unpack what the hoarding of toilet paper says about our society, what\u2019s clear is the global coronavirus outbreak has brought about strange times, said Brian Burke, a professor of psychology at Fort Lewis College.<\/p>\n

As a result, there\u2019s really no template or clear direction about how to handle it or what to do, Burke said. So, we look toward others for guidance in terms of how to act.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn other words, people have been overbuying or even hoarding toilet paper because people have been overbuying toilet paper,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen we see other people panic or buy certain items at the grocery store, we tend to do the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Durango
Durango city employees James Law, left, and Jake Yost watch a video feed as a remote camera crawls through an 8-inch clay pipe in South Durango. The city is paying close attention to sewer lines as people flush products other than toilet paper.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Panic induces more panic, is the point, Burke said. It\u2019s a psychological construct called \u201csocial influence.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s been the hardest thing about this pandemic, is that we really do not know how much we ought to panic, how to balance the importance of flattening the curve and saving lives with individual freedoms and the health of the economy,\u201d Burke said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do not know how worried we should be until we observe others, and we are receiving highly mixed messages from experts or pseudo-experts in government and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the meantime, people are left to search aimlessly among the empty aisles for simple toilet paper. But, if you\u2019re one of the lucky ones to stumble upon the prized paper product, leave some for the next person.<\/p>\n

\"The
The \u201cWarthog,\u201d developed by StoneAge Inc., a Durango company, uses water and pressure to blast through sewer clogs and tree roots obstructing an 8-inch clay pipe in South Durango.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cThe influx of people buying up all the toilet paper has caused people not doing that to have shortages,\u201d said Jason Mitchell, general manager of Nature\u2019s Oasis.<\/p>\n

A spokeswoman with City Market wrote in an email that manufacturing plants and supply chain teams are \u201cworking tirelessly to help replenish our inventories and ensure that the supplies our customers need are reaching our stores as quickly as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mitchell said even now, shipments that come in are gone in a day or two.<\/p>\n

\u201cInitially, we tried to put a limit, but now we\u2019re not getting enough in to even limit it,\u201d he said. \u201cBut that\u2019s about the only shelf we don\u2019t have full.\u201d<\/p>\n

jromeo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Poll: How many rolls of toilet paper do you have at your household?<\/p>\n

None \u2013 209 \u2013 12.77%<\/p>\n

Fewer than four \u2013 206 \u2013 12.58%<\/p>\n

Fewer than 12 \u2013 535 \u2013 32.68%<\/p>\n

Fewer than 36 \u2013 357 \u2013 21.81%<\/p>\n

More than 36 \u2013 330 \u2013 20.16%<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

pandemic affects respiratory, not gastrointestinal system, so what gives?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":89240,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[685,507,132,4151],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-89238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-coronavirus-covid-19","tag-durango-city-officials","tag-fort-lewis-college","tag-waste-management-and-pollution-control"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89238"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=89238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}