Can Chemicals and Solvents Be Dumped Down the Drain?

Wastewater treatment is a process to convert wastewater, which is water no longer needed or suitable for use in its most current state, into clean water for such things as drinking, cooking, and washing.

When this type of water is disposed of down a drain or flushed down a toilet, it either goes into a septic system or into a municipal sewer system where they pass through a wastewater treatment facility.

“If you have a septic system, wastewater from your house goes into a tank buried underground. The solids settle out and partially decompose. The remaining wastewater then goes into a drain field where the natural processes ongoing in the soil help to further break down the wastewater. Toxic materials in that wastewater can kill the helpful bacteria and the system will not operate properly.

Some toxic materials move through the soil untreated or unchanged. When this happens groundwater or surface waters may become contaminated. For example, many paint removers and aerosol paint products contain the chemical methylene chloride, which can pass directly through a septic system without breaking down at all. Chlorine bleach can also pass through a septic system without breaking down. Also the chlorine can react with organic matter to form new toxic chemicals.”

“Wastewater treatment plants are engineered facilities that are designed to treat biological waste, only. The primary treatment process that these facilities use is called ‘aerobic digestion’, where engineered bacteria break down biological waste.”

Wastewater treatment plants are generally not equipped to treat chemical type wastes, like solvents, pesticides, paints, cleaning products, and pharmaceutical drugs, among other chemicals. These chemicals remain in the water system diluted down but essentially unchanged.

The list of what should not go down a drain is long but can be divided into four main categories:

“1. Toxic chemicals like paint, cleaning products, oil, and solvents
Water treatment facilities can remove a lot of contaminants, but plenty of dangerous chemicals that go down your drain will still end up being dumped into our rivers, lakes, and oceans. Phosphates from detergents, chlorine from bleach, and the toxins in pesticides will all wreak havoc on fragile ecosystems once they leave your local sewage treatment plant. You wouldn’t throw paint, solvents, pesticides or other chemicals out in your yard, so why would you put them down the drain?

2. Medications
We’ve all been stuck with expired or leftover medicine at some point. In fact, about a third of the medications sold in the U.S. never get taken. But you’ll want to avoid flushing those unused pills or liquids: much like other chemicals, medications you dump down the toilet will find their way into natural waterways. Studies have found everything from antibiotics to ibuprofen to antidepressants in drinking water supplies throughout the U.S.

3. Grease, fats, and oils
It can be tempting to just wash all that oil from the frying pan down the drain with the dishwater, but greases, oils, and fats from cooking will quickly cause all sorts of problems: when they solidify they can clog pipes and wreck not just your plumbing but also sewage treatment plants. Even worse, if it makes it out to the environment it can disrupt the natural balance of waterways (think of how oil floats on top of water in your sink) and interfere with plants, fish, and other wildlife.

4. Paper towels, cotton balls, pre-moistened wipes, scrub pads, etc.
While toilet paper is made to break down in a sewer or septic tank, other paper products are designed to stand up to that sort of abuse. The same sturdiness that makes a paper towel perfect for cleaning up spills means that it’s likely to clog up pipes and increase the chance of sewer backups and overflows. So even though products like paper towels, baby wipes, and cotton swabs are biodegradable you’ll want to keep them out of your sewage system, even if they claim to be flushable.”

Help protect our natural water sources and our clean drinking water by properly disposing of chemicals and solvents at Household Hazardous Waste collection sites. For more information on waste and recycling options visit www.wasteawaygroup.com.

Wikipedia.org

Co.san-juan.wa.us

Freedrinkingwater.com

Greenhome.com