27 November 2023
Your Council crews have recently attended to a growing number of avoidable blockages at the region’s sewage pump stations, prompting Southern Downs Regional Council to remind residents to only flush the 3 P’s – poo, pee and paper.
Council’s Director Infrastructure Services Gary Murphy said non-flushable items such as wet wipes cause significant blockages to our sewerage system and belong in the bin, not the toilet.
“Sometimes items are innocently but mistakenly labelled ‘flushable’, despite the fact that they don’t disintegrate in the sewer system in 20 seconds like toilet paper,” Mr Murphy said.
“Council acknowledges items like wet wipes are hygienically convenient for baby clean ups, nappy changes, cleaning floors, wiping toilet seats and cleaning hands, however they are not manufactured to completely disintegrate like toilet paper.
“The disposal of non-flushable items down the toilet unfortunately results in blocking our pumps and causing potentially toxic overflows.
“Some properties don’t have properly functioning overflow relief gully traps and there is the potential for a sewer blockage to cause surcharging inside houses and none of us wish to experience that!
“We can all help protect our waterways and save our sewers by not using the toilet as a bin.
“Residents should always check packaging for the flushable symbol – if there’s no symbol then don’t flush it, bin it.”
In order to avoid future overflows and damage to our pump stations and waterways, Council reminds the community to sustainably dispose of wet wipes, flushable wipes and cleaning wipes in household rubbish, rather than flushing these items down the toilet.
Help us keep our sewerage system working well. Please dispose of these items in the bin:
• Facial tissues
• Paper napkins
• Hand towels
• Nappies
• Sanitary items
• Cotton buds
• Dental floss
• Cigarette butts
• Fats and oils
• Food scraps
• Needles
What does our sewerage system do? The sewerage system carries our wastewater sewage to treatment plants where it’s treated for the community’s use. Flushing anything but the 3 P’s can cause pump and sewer blockages and sewer line breaks, leading to toxic overflow into the stormwater system, creeks and waterways with risk to the agricultural industry, causing environmental pollution and endangering public health.
More information on how to be a better sewage citizen can be found at .
Last edited date 27 Nov 2023