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.

Stormwater Runoff

Storm drains are drainage systems that collect rain water and melted snow that doesn't soak into the ground. Their main function is to  keep streets and roadways from flooding.

Rain, melted snow, and any other water that is allowed to go down a storm drain flows directly into nearby streams, creeks, and lakes, eventually ending up in the ocean. 

Unlike water that goes down the drain in your house to the sewer or your city's waste water treatment plant, water that flows into storm drains is not treated or filtered for pollutants.