Residential Pipe Care During Drinking Water Week 2017

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Pharmaceuticals should never be flushed down a toilet.

As Drinking Water Week continues, Tata & Howard joins the American Water Works Association and water professionals across North America in encouraging householders to care for their homes’ pipes. Many things can unnecessarily clog a home’s plumbing system, including “flushable” wipes, as well as fats, oils, and grease. Each year, these clog pipes, back up systems, and harm the environment when they aren’t disposed of properly.

Specifically, flushable wipes, facial tissue, paper towels, and medications should be thrown away in the trash and should never be flushed down the toilet. Also, fats, oil, and grease should not be dumped down the drain. Instead, they should also be thrown away in the trash.

“Caring for our pipes should be considered maintenance around the home and not just thought of when something goes wrong with them,” said AWWA Chief Executive Officer David LaFrance. “We have to do our part not to clog up our already precarious water and wastewater systems.”

More information on caring for pipes can be found on DrinkTap.org.

About Drinking Water Week

For more than 35 years, AWWA and its members have celebrated Drinking Water Week, a unique opportunity for both water professionals and the communities they serve to join together to recognize the vital role water plays in daily lives.

National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day is September 26

drugs in drinking waterThe United States Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) is hosting its 10th National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day on September 26th from 10am-2pm local time in every state except Pennsylvania and Delaware, where the event took place on September 12. Sites will be set up throughout communities nationwide so local residents can return their unwanted, unneeded, or expired prescription drugs for safe disposal.

Collection sites in every local community can be found by going to www.dea.gov . This site will be continuously updated with new take-back locations.

While National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day addresses the vital public safety and public health issue of prescription drug abuse, it also addresses the recently recognized problem of prescription medications found in our nation’s water supply. Many Americans do not know how to properly dispose of their unused medicines, often flushing them down the toilet, which causes a significant public health hazard.

In the previous nine Take-Back events nationwide from 2010-2014, 4,823,251 pounds, or 2,411 tons of drugs were collected.