Baby wipes may be convenient, but they play hell with Wauneta’s sewer system.
    And if you didn’t know that, it’s no surprise.
    “What’s misleading is you’ll go to a store and these things will say that they are flushable wipes,” Wauneta Public Works Superintendent Bill Bischoff said. “Those actually are not biodegradable. They do not break down before they get to the lift pumps. They plug the lift pumps.”
    Wauneta has two such lift pumps, which run alternately. But both see the same problem.
    And that leads to what may arguably be the worst job Wauneta workers — or any workers, for that matter — have: cleaning out the pumps.
    When clogged, the pumps have to lifted 15 feet out of a manhole, disassembled and cleaned by a worker wearing rubber gloves and a mask. Non-biodegradable rags must be pulled out by hand and they’re “not white any more, I can tell you that,” Bischoff said drily. It takes perhaps half a day to do the job.

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