City discovered an increase of children’s underwear clogging up sewer system

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    SAGINAW TOWNSHIP, MICHIGAN (WNEM) — A mid-Michigan city is addressing a potential ticking time-bomb in its sewer system before it blows up into a catastrophic mess.

Saginaw Township is warning residents to be mindful of what they put down the drain after a recent troubling discovery.

“We started seeing an increase in the number of underwear, children’s underwear that we’ve been seeing at the pump station,” said the Director of the Department of Public Services Daryl Gotham.

In Saginaw Township, kids’ underwear is clogging up the sewer system. Gotham said that over the last few months, his colleagues have found over a dozen tighty-whiteys wrapped around the pump impellers.

“These are possibly detrimental to our pumps,” Gotham said.

Earlier this week, Gotham sent a letter to the few hundred residents near the pumps at the corner of McCarty and Mannion Roads, urging them to stop flushing underwear, baby wipes and grease down their pipes.

“It can cause a lot of damage. It can cause people’s basements or crawl spaces to back up,” Gotham said.

Gotham said the items could potentially destroy the pumps, which would cost tens of thousands of dollars to replace. Those costs would be passed on to residents in their sewer rates.

“It’s just a matter of time before something happens that’s much worse than what we’ve seen so far,” Gotham said.

Gotham said if anyone has questions on what can and can’t go down the sewer system, reach out to the department of public services.

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