Measures seek to keep drains free of contaminants, chemicals

Many items that get thrown away in the flurry of spring cleaning can be a danger to the community and can’t simply be dumped down the drain or put on the curb. But procedures are in place to dispose of nearly everything.

The Clark County Water Reclamation District has been trying to spread the word on what shouldn’t be dumped down a household or storm drain with its Pain in the Drain campaign , which includes a website at paininthedrain.com and an animated educational series for school use .

“We started that in 2005 when we noticed we were having more clogging incidents,” said Marty Flynn, spokesman for the reclamation district. “Our commercial customers have systems in place to prevent these things from getting into the system, so we knew we needed to get the word out to residential customers.”

The animated series features Captain Can-It and his ongoing battle with the villainous forces of F.O.G.G., a group of costumed baddies consisting of Fat, Grease, Grit and their ringleader, Oil. The shorts can be viewed on the website or on YouTube and include tips on how to properly dispose of items that clog the pipes and necessitate expensive cleaning procedures at the valley’s water reclamation facilities.

“The best way to measure the campaign’s success is the number of clogs we get,” Flynn said. “We’ve had fewer every year since the campaign started.”

A list of items that the Clark County Water Reclamation District advises against disposing of down the drain include poison, grease , aquarium gravel , facial tissue and baby wipes .

As the name of their spandex-clad protagonist implies, the recommended disposal method for many of these items is to can them — that is, put them in the trash can.

Republic Services is prepared to remove most refuse, but some things require special handling and can’t be put on the curb on trash day.

Facial tissue, paper towels, baby wipes and sanitary napkins belong in the trash. They are not designed to break down rapidly and can lead to drain clogging.

Animal grease should be poured into a newspaper-lined can before it cools too much and congeals. The can should be thrown in the trash.

Allow cooking oil to cool and then use a funnel and pour it back into its original container. Take the oil to a designated location to be recycled and turned into fuel for vehicles such as school buses.

Coffee grounds, eggshells, rice, seeds and other food items should not be put into the drain. While most garbage disposals will break down these items to go through pipes, they will not break down enough to be processed with liquid waste in the valley’s water reclamation facilities. All those particles need to be mechanically filtered as they enter the plant and then hauled away by truck to landfills.

Unused medicine that is flushed down the drain can’t be filtered and can present an environmental risk. Flynn said the studies have shown that the medicine flushed into the system isn’t a direct threat to humans yet but it adversely affects fish and other wildlife.

The preferred method of medication disposal is to bring it to a police station where an anonymous drop box is provided. Sgt. Paul McCullough was working in the narcotics division of the Metropolitan Police Department in 2009 when he helped create the drop-box program.

“We got together with a number of different entities, created a coalition and brainstormed,” McCullough said. “Initially, we held pill take-back events, and later we started putting in the boxes.”

The program drew a positive response.

“One guy came down with a couple of black trash bags’ full of old meds,” McCullough said. “Some of the pills dated from the 1970s . He just didn’t know what to do with them.

The anonymous drop boxes are in all of the department’s area commands, listed at lvmpd.com/findnearestcommand.aspx.

“Last week, we put one in at the North Las Vegas Police Department,” Flynn said recently. “This week, we put one in the last station in the county that didn’t have one — the new station downtown.”

Flynn said the Clark County Water Reclamation District pays for the drop box, but the larger and more complex and expensive part of the process is handled by police, who need to weigh, catalog and incinerate the medicine.

Barring dropping the medicine off, the Southern Nevada Health District recommends putting solid medication in a sealable bag, crushing it, adding coffee grounds, kitty litter or some other absorbent product, adding liquid medications, sealing the bag and disposing of it in a trash can.

McCullough said that liquid medicine and medical sharps such as used needles should not be put in the drop boxes and that select pharmacies will dispose of liquids. Republic Services has a mail-in program for medical sharps, and the details are on its website, republic
servicesvegas .com.

Paint, motor oil and other automotive fluids, flammable liquids, pool chemicals, adhesives, pesticides and fertilizer can be taken to either of Republic Services’ hazardous waste collection locations at 333 W. Gowan Road, North Las Vegas, and 560 Cape Horn Drive , Henderson. They are open alternate weeks from one another, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday. A schedule , maps and what hazardous waste is accepted are available at republicservicesvegas .com.

Contact Sunrise/Whitney View reporter F. Andrew Taylor at ataylor@viewnews.com or 702-380-4532.