Please stop flushing garbage, Town of Roddickton-Bide Arm asks residents
The Town of Roddickton-Bide Arm is reminding residents to think before they flush.
On Wednesday, augers used to mulch solid debris in a sewage lift station in Bide Arm became clogged with trash, damaging a motor.
Mayor Sheila Fitzgerald says town crews assessed the problem, but had to call in a technician from Corner Brook for help.
"When he came down and lifted up the motor, we noticed this large mat that included everything from plastic bags to cloths to grease — everything was in this, just all mushed up together, and of course it got clogged and it stopped [the motor]," she said.
The damage to lift stations in the town is not an isolated incident, Fitzgerald said, and the town posted a photo on Facebook to convince people in the town from causing further damage by putting garbage down the drain.
"That was the reason why we put it on Facebook, because once you see a picture — seeing is believing, so hopefully that gives a whole new meaning to our residents ... cloths, plastic bags — please don't let that go down your into your drain," the mayor said.
"It becomes very costly.… It affects the people that are on that lift station, but it also affects all the residents because the cost to repair comes out of our town operating budget, and we get that from the taxpayers."
In addition to clogging lift stations, Fitzgerald said flushing garbage is also just bad for the environment.
"Things go out the drain and people figure, out of sight, out of mind and we don't have to be worried about that," she said.
"But that actually goes out into the ocean. We have a process where it goes to the lift station, then it goes to our septic tank, then the outfall is out into the ocean, so we don't want to be polluting our beaches and we don't want to be polluting the water that surrounds our town."
Fitzgerald said fixing the lift station will be a "costly repair," but she's not sure of the total cost.
The mayor said there's no blame being placed for the blocked lift station, but she hopes the Facebook post will prevent it from happening again.
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