Water Recycling News!

Cedarburg Water Recycling Center

            Well it’s that time of year again where we can expect a lot of rain and snow melting these next few months.  All of that extra precipitation can cause issues at the Cedarburg Water Recycling Center.  We like to call that clear water, (I/I) inflow/infiltration, and it sometimes overwhelms our plant during the spring months.  However, we are reminding you, the homeowners, that it is illegal to connect your sump pump piping into the sanitary sewers.  Your sump pump discharge should end up outside your homes, not the sanitary sewer system.  Also, please don’t connect your roof gutter drains to the sanitary sewer system as well because it leads to the same issues.  We already get some clear water during the spring season from other sources so if you could do your part as the homeowner to eliminate any illegal hookups we would really appreciate it. 

            In addition to I/I issues, flushable wipes are also a serious issue for our Water Recycling Center.  Although many of these wipes say that they are “flushable”, they are in fact not dispersible.  That means that they will not break down like toilet paper will.  Instead, they stay intact and clog up our lift stations and Water Recycling Center.  This will lead to increased maintenance costs and labor costs to address this problem.  So please only flush toilet paper down the toilet and not flushable wipes. 

            High concentrations of chlorides (salt) can negatively affect aquatic life in receiving water bodies; therefore we want to limit it as much as possible.  The best way to do that is to stop it at its source.  Residential water softeners contribute a great deal of chlorides to the Cedarburg Water Recycling Center.  Homeowners can remedy this problem by fine tuning their water softeners to soften their water just as much as needed.  On demand water softeners use just as much salt as needed to treat your hard water.  The rule of thumb is that if your water softener is 14 years old or older, it should be replaced because it has lost its efficiency over time.  This will be a cost savings to the homeowner as well because “on demand” water softeners require less salt usage.