And it could cost us all a lot more money in future if it’s not ‘wiped’ out.

The Nambucca Shire Council has said it has noticed a big increase in the number of sewer blockages and pump station chokes over the past 18 months. 

These blockages can often lead to sewage leaks as happened recently at the Bellwood Creek pumping station in Nambucca which saw a significant overflow of raw sewage flow out into the Nambucca River, temporarily crippling business for our local oyster farmers.

Council’s manager water and sewerage Richard Spain has said the length of time it took Council to recognise the leak was a serious issue and that his staff are currently working hard to prevent a reoccurrence. 

But while Council can improve reaction times to these blockages, he said that doesn’t attack the root cause of the growing problem, which he attributes to one major factor: wet wipes. 

“The majority of these incidents have been caused by so-called ‘flushable’ wipes. These wipes are marketed as being suitable for flushing down the toilet when in reality they are not suitable for disposal in the town sewer system,” he said.

Instead of disintegrating or breaking up in the sewer system like toilet paper, the wipes have a habit of catching on tree roots and balling up together causing blockages in the pipes.

Add to the mix solidified cooking fat tipped down the kitchen sink, and you have a recipe for a phenomenon the media recently coined ‘fatbergs’; an impenetrable force of mass destruction that NSW plumbers and waterworks operatives have said can be a strong as ‘kevlar”.

In fact, the problem is rife right across NSW. Sydney Water's Keiran Smith revealed that 75 per cent of all the city’s blockages were caused by wet wipes – now used domestically for everything from removing makeup to cleaning kitchens and bottoms of all sizes.

In 2016 an eye-watering one-tonne fatberg had to be excised with special machinery from a sewage pumping station in Lake Macquarie.

“When the wet wipes do make their way through the pipe system they tend to accumulate in pump stations and choke up the pumps so that they do not work efficiently or, in many cases, cease operating altogether. The resulting back up of sewage increases the risk of an overflow occurring in the system,” Mr Spain said.

The growing prevalence of the wet wipe clogs may end up costing us all more money in future.

Mr Spain said Council had invested a good deal of money in a new SCADA system that is used to alert staff of problems in the pump stations as they occur, but said it still took considerable man hours to clear the clogs out once they happened.

“In many cases this work is labour-intensive and very unpleasant,” he said.

“If the problem continues at its current rate of occurrence, Council’s operation and maintenance costs are likely to increase significantly. These costs will have to be passed on to ratepayers through increased sewerage charges on rates notices.”

But the solution is easy: simply dispose of these wipes into your red household bins.

"People often don't realise their toilet is not a rubbish bin. Just because it goes around the S bend doesn't mean 'out of sight out of mind',” Mr Spain said.

He said it's best to play it safe and only flush human waste and toilet paper.

"Other products are not acceptable because of their high potential to cause blockages, to end up on our beaches and rivers, create sewage overflows and increase costs for sewage treatment and maintenance.

EPA backflip puts red bin rubbish back into landfill

Schools in line for funding boost, regardless of election winner