Sid Fredrickson, wastewater superintendent for the city of Coeur d’Alene, has been in the sewage treatment biz for 35 years. He was sorry to hear that between 50 and 11,000 gallons of raw sewage spilled into Hayden Lake this week. Officials with the Hayden Lake Recreational Water and Sewer District are unsure of the exact cause, but they suspect a sewer pipe got plugged up with disposable diapers and baby wipes.

When Fredrickson heard about the disposable diapers, he wasn’t surprised.

“Some people flush mop heads,” he said. “We get cans. We get rocks. We get two-by-fours. You get people who flush pesticides and motor oil. You get personal care products – skin moisturizers, hair bleaches – and pharmaceuticals. Some people don’t have common sense. Use your brain. Ask: ‘What can be transported by a gravity system?’ It ain’t rocks or timber. Those things don’t flow downhill.”

Hayden Lake residents may be experiencing the feelings shared by others in the Inland Northwest who have witnessed what happens after a sewer system breach. In July 2006, for instance, raw sewage streamed into the Spokane River near Downriver Golf Course. A blocked sewer line was to blame. Anglers and river rafters saw feces and hypodermic needles in the water.

These sights are gross reminders of how quickly water can become contaminated. And how important wastewater systems are to a community’s health and well-being. Usually, citizens don’t like to think about sewage treatment. But when a crisis happens, there it is.

Hayden Lake’s treated wastewater, by the way, isn’t discharged into the lake. In summer months, the wastewater is applied on land, and in other months, it’s discharged into the Spokane River.

Regional wastewater experts shared this easy-to-remember rule about what can be flushed down a toilet: Human waste and toilet paper. Nothing else. Not the butt of the cigarette enjoyed on the john. Not the bleach wipes used to wipe down the toilet. Not those expired aspirin. Not the cough syrup your kids aren’t supposed to take anymore. Not the dental floss.

Floss, for instance, can gum up the works at a wastewater treatment plant the same way string can wrap around a power drill. Baby wipes and bleach wipes seem to share the same consistency as toilet paper, but they don’t biodegrade in the same manner.

Wastewater treatment technology is growing more sophisticated and much more expensive. Citizens pay for sewage treatment, and for their money they expect well-run systems that don’t spill, leak, contaminate. But citizens share responsibility for these treatment systems, too.

As Fredrickson likes to say, common sense should be more common. Let it begin in the home, at the toilet-flushing level.