How You Can Help

Only flush the "Three P's": pee, poop, and toilet paper. These are the only things designed to break down in water and safely pass through the sewer system. Anything else should go in the trash.

F.O.G. stands for Fats, Oils, and Grease. These substances may be liquid when hot, but they cool down and solidify in pipes, creating massive blockages known as "fatbergs." F.O.G. is a leading cause of sewer overflows and backups in the United States.

• Never pour F.O.G. down the drain. This includes cooking oil, bacon grease, lard, butter, and food scraps with oily residue.
• Dispose of it properly:
  • Can it: Pour cooled F.O.G. into an old, heat-safe container (like a coffee can or glass jar). Once it solidifies, secure the lid and throw it in the trash.
  • Scrape it: Before washing, scrape food and grease from pots, pans, and plates into the trash or a compost bin. You can also wipe them with a paper towel.
  • Check for recycling: Some communities offer programs for recycling large quantities of cooking oil.

The following items do not break down and can cause serious clogs, both in your home's plumbing and in the municipal sewer system.

• Wipes: Even "flushable" wipes do not disintegrate and are a major culprit for clogs.
• Paper Products: Paper towels, facial tissues, and napkins are designed to be absorbent and durable, so they won't break down like toilet paper.
• Feminine Hygiene Products: Tampons and sanitary napkins are highly absorbent and expand when wet, making them a significant blockage risk.
• Cotton Products: Cotton balls, cotton swabs, and dental floss can get tangled and form clogs.
• Hair: Hair is one of the most common causes of clogs in bathroom drains. Use a drain strainer to catch hair before it goes down the drain.
• Food Scraps: Even with a garbage disposal, food waste like coffee grounds, eggshells, and fibrous vegetables can clump together and cause blockages.
• Rice and Pasta: These foods expand when they absorb water, which can easily clog pipes.
• Kitty Litter: Even "flushable" kitty litter can cause problems, as its clay content can form a concrete-like substance in pipes.
• Latex and Plastic: Condoms and plastic of any kind do not break down in water.

Many common household products contain chemicals that can harm the environment and disrupt the wastewater treatment process.

• Never pour hazardous materials down the drain. This includes paint, paint thinner, pesticides, herbicides, solvents, and automotive fluids like motor oil and antifreeze.
• Follow local regulations: Check with your local waste management or public works department for information on household hazardous waste (HHW) collection programs. These are often one-day events or permanent drop-off sites where you can safely dispose of these materials.
• Medications: Do not flush unwanted or expired medications down the toilet. Many communities have "take-back" programs at pharmacies, hospitals, or police stations for safe disposal.

• Use drain strainers: Place mesh screens or strainers in all your sinks and shower drains to catch solid materials before they go down the pipe.
• Avoid chemical cleaners: While they may offer a quick fix, harsh chemical drain cleaners can corrode your pipes over time. Instead, use a plunger, a plumber's snake, or a natural solution of baking soda and vinegar for minor clogs.
• Conserve water: While not directly related to clogs, using water wisely reduces the volume of wastewater that needs to be treated, which lessens the burden on the entire system. See “Conserve Water” below for some easy, helpful tips on conserving water.

Approximately 70% of water used in a household is used inside the home, with the bathroom using the most.

By replacing older, inefficient bathroom fixtures you can save:

• Water: 7,000 gallons annually
• Electricity: 200 Kilowatt hours annually
• Money: $80 in utility bills annually

For more facts and water saving tips please read our publications:

• Conserving and Protecting Water Resources (slide presentation)
• Partners Protecting Our Water: Wonders of Watersheds (brochure)
• Using Less Water is the Right Thing to Do! (brochure)
• Water Conservation for Camden County (brochure)
• Water Conservation Presented by Rutgers University (slide presentation)

And see these other resources from EPA’s WaterSense program and other resources:

• Water Saving Information (fact sheets, ideas, methods)
• Materials for Educators
• Water Saving Information

Every Drop Counts

More than 1 trillion gallons of water are wasted in U.S. homes each year from easy-to-fix leaks. That’s why the Camden County Municipal Utilities Authority is participating in Fix a Leak Week, March 18 through 24, 2024, and we encourage you to join us.

Sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) WaterSense program, Fix a Leak Week is an opportunity to improve the water efficiency of your home by finding and fixing leaks. In the average home, household leaks waste more than 10,000 gallons of water each year. That’s the amount of water needed to wash 270 loads of laundry!

Here’s how to identify leaks around your home:

• Read your water meter before and after a two-hour period when no water is being used. If the meter changes at all, you probably have a leak.
• Winter months are the prime time to check water use and see if you may have a leak. If a family of four exceeds 12,000 gallons per month in the winter, you probably have leaks!

Here’s how you can address leaks found at home:

• Check for leaks. Look for dripping faucets, showerheads, sprinklers, and other fixtures. Also check for toilets with silent leaks by putting a few drops of food coloring into the tank and seeing if it appears in the bowl before you flush. Don’t forget to check irrigation systems and spigots too.
• Twist and tighten hose and pipe connections. To save more water without a noticeable difference in flow in your bathroom faucet, twist on a WaterSense labeled faucet aerator.
• Replace the fixture if necessary. Look for WaterSense labeled models, which are independently certified to use 20 percent less water and perform as well as or better than standard models.

As a WaterSense partner concerned with preserving our nation’s water supply, CCMUA can help you learn more.

Mark your calendar: Fix a Leak Week is March 18 through 24, 2024. Grab a wrench or contact your favorite handy person, plumber, or certified irrigation professional to address leaking toilets, faucets, showerheads, and irrigation systems around your home.

• Take the WaterSense pledge.
• Like WaterSense on Facebook and follow WaterSense on Twitter for the latest tips and events.
• Visit the WaterSense website to learn more.

• Fix a Leak Fact Sheet
• Detect and Chase Down Leaks Checklist
• Materials for Educators
• Information on the Water Cycle

Many common household products contain chemicals that can harm the environment and disrupt the wastewater treatment process.

• Never pour hazardous materials down the drain. This includes paint, paint thinner, pesticides, herbicides, solvents, and automotive fluids like motor oil and antifreeze.
• Follow local regulations: Check with your local waste management or public works department for information on household hazardous waste (HHW) collection programs. These are often one-day events or permanent drop-off sites where you can safely dispose of these materials.
• Medications: Do not flush unwanted or expired medications down the toilet. Many communities have "take-back" programs at pharmacies, hospitals, or police stations for safe disposal.

• Use drain strainers: Place mesh screens or strainers in all your sinks and shower drains to catch solid materials before they go down the pipe.
• Avoid chemical cleaners: While they may offer a quick fix, harsh chemical drain cleaners can corrode your pipes over time. Instead, use a plunger, a plumber's snake, or a natural solution of baking soda and vinegar for minor clogs.
• Conserve water: While not directly related to clogs, using water wisely reduces the volume of wastewater that needs to be treated, which lessens the burden on the entire system. See “Conserve Water” below for some easy, helpful tips on conserving water.

A rain garden (also known as a bio-infiltration basin or a bioswale) is a very simple thing: a depression in the ground that catches water and helps it to filter back into the ground.

There are a number of great reasons to build one:

• They Reduce Stormwater Runoff: Rain gardens are designed to capture and absorb rainwater from impervious surfaces like roofs, driveways, and sidewalks. This helps to reduce the volume and speed of runoff that flows into storm drains and local waterways. This not only helps prevent erosion, it helps to reduce the amount of sediment and potential pollutants that could enter our local water bodies. As a bonus, the wetland-like ecosystem of a rain garden helps to filter and clean these pollutants!
• Recharges Groundwater: By allowing rainwater to slowly infiltrate the ground rather than run off, a rain garden helps replenish local groundwater supplies and aquifers, which are vital sources of drinking water. Water that runs off into streets and sidewalks is likely to flow directly to a stream and eventually into the ocean, failing to recharge the aquifer.
• Reduce Flooding and Drainage Issues: If you have a low-lying area in your yard where water pools after a storm, a rain garden can be a perfect solution. It helps to absorb the water, preventing standing puddles and potential basement flooding. If you’re removing an already paved area, you’re having even greater impact, as you’re removing some of the impervious (non-draining) surfaces that cause stormwater run-off issues in the first place!
• Require Less Maintenance Than Lawn Once Established: Once established, a rain garden typically requires less maintenance than a traditional lawn. Because it's designed with native plants, it won't need regular watering, fertilizers, or pesticides. You will have to do some weeding in the beginning, but over time, the dense planting will help suppress weeds.
• Enhance Your Landscape: Rain gardens are a beautiful and creative alternative to a traditional, monotonous lawn. You can use a variety of colorful, flowering native plants to create a visually appealing landscape feature that changes with the seasons.
• Create Wildlife Habitat: A rain garden planted with native species provides food, shelter, and nesting sites for a variety of beneficial wildlife, including birds, butterflies, bees, and other pollinators.

A one-inch rain event will produce 0.63 gallons of rain per square foot of area it hits. If you don’t know your roof’s area, you can get a rough approximation by measuring it on google maps. Multiply the square feet of your roof area by 0.63 and the number of inches of rainfall and you have your gallons captured! E.g. if your roof is 1000 square feet, a 1.25 inch rain event (the NJ standard for designing green infrastructure) will drop 788 gallons of water on your roof (0.63 gallons per square foot x 1.25 inches x 1000 square feet). In our area we receive about 42 inches of rainfall a year, so in a year you could capture more than 25,000 gallons of rain!

Planning, designing, and installing a rain garden will take you more than a weekend, but it’s not difficult or complicated! It just takes a bit of thinking ahead, measuring, marking, and planning to order supplies. It’s more than we can get into here, but the Rutgers Cooperative Extension Office has an excellent, detailed manual to get you started. Find the manual here. If you’d like more ideas or resources, contact our Public Engagement team at lbivona@ccmua.org.

• Use drain strainers: Place mesh screens or strainers in all your sinks and shower drains to catch solid materials before they go down the pipe.
• Avoid chemical cleaners: While they may offer a quick fix, harsh chemical drain cleaners can corrode your pipes over time. Instead, use a plunger, a plumber's snake, or a natural solution of baking soda and vinegar for minor clogs.
• Conserve water: While not directly related to clogs, using water wisely reduces the volume of wastewater that needs to be treated, which lessens the burden on the entire system. See “Conserve Water” below for some easy, helpful tips on conserving water.

Exactly what it sounds like! It’s a container that catches rain from your downspouts and allows you to store it and use it later. You can buy them ready-made at the store, but these usually cost $100 or more. Making and installing one yourself is easy, fun, and affordable!

Rain Barrels offer many of the same benefits as rain gardens (see above) – namely, they help catch and store rainwater before it becomes polluted runoff, which protects our local water bodies. And while they don’t create habitat for local species or add as much beauty to your yard, they have their added benefits:

• They’re easier to make and install than a rain garden – even the least handy folks can make and install one in less than a day
• They can save you money on your utility bills – if you’re a gardener, you know how much water can go into irrigating those tomatoes (let alone a thirsty lawn!). Water caught from your roof is free and saves you on your metered fees. As a bonus, if you put your rain barrel up on blocks and allow your watering to happen with gravity, there’s no need to pay for or operate a pump, saving on your electric bill as well.
• They’re scalable – you might start with one and realize you need more water for your garden. If so, no problem! It’s easy to connect one barrel to another “in series” and expand your storage. Want to have a bigger positive impact and prevent water from running off into local streams and water bodies? Calculate how many gallons of rain hit your roof (see “How Much Rain Can I Catch?” under Installing a Rain Garden at Home or Work above) and divide the number of gallons by 50 – that will tell you roughly how many barrels you’d need.

There are many, many designs and resources for rain barrels, each slightly different, but almost all of them do the same thing: 1) a way to direct rain water into the barrel; 2) store the rain water; 3) keep everything that isn’t rain water out and 4) allow water out. We’ll walk you through the basic things you need or should look for in order to have a barrel that does all four of these things. But for more complete detail, consider these guides and resources from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and Rutgers Cooperative Extension

What you’ll need and where to get it

• Downspout diverter – there are many different designs, but all of them modify your gutter downspout to allow rainwater to flow into a rain barrel. Do a web search for “downspout diverter kits” and you’ll find many different models. All work roughly the same and are easy to install with simple tools. Some have a “switch” that allows you to change the flow of water from the barrel’s direction back down the full length of the downspout and onto the ground (usually as part of winterizing the barrel – see below). However, an even simpler and cheaper design some have had success with is to cut the downspout at the height of their barrel and place the barrel underneath; all barrels should have overflow protection, and if that is a hose that leads away from your home’s foundation anyway, the diverter is not necessary.
• Barrel – any water storage device can work, but to get the stormwater capture benefits you’re looking for, a food-grade 55-gallon drum is the minimum size you should aim for. These can often be found for free or for cheap second-hand on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace. While supplies last, the CCMUA does have some leftover barrels remaining. Contact lbivona@ccmua.org if you’re interested!
• Screened Entry Point – again, there are many clever designs (including those that use household collanders or fancy filters) but at its core all one needs is a hole in the barrel that the gutter can flow into, and a screen over that hole that prevents mosquitoes from depositing eggs in it. The simplest solution we have trained individuals to use here at the authority is to purchase a 3’x3’ section of mosquito netting from their local hardware store, lay this over the top of the barrel, and secure the locking ring that comes with the lid of your 55-gallon drum to tightly secure the screen onto the barrel. Simple, fast, and affordable!
• Drainage hardware and plumbing – a simple, standard ¾" NPT (national pipe thread – the standard by which pipe thread measurements are noted for hardware and plumbing suppliers) hose bibb can be secured near the bottom of your barrel and attached to a hose for easy use of your water! Some have simply used a drill or hole saw (or, very carefully, a small hacksaw) to cut a circle slightly smaller than the threads (5/8” holes work well) and then screwed the hose bibb in, but this will probably leak. At the very least you should use silicone caulk on both sides of the bibb, but the better solution is to include teflon tape around the threads and secure the bibb from the other side with a ¾" rubber washer and a ¾" NPT bushing (search for these on your preferred home improvement supplier’s website, or go and speak with a representative)
• Overflow hardware and plumbing – similar hardware employed for drainage can be installed near the top as overflow control. However, it’s a good idea to have a bigger outlet for your overflow protection as a backup, to avoid clogs or other obstructions that would prevent water from getting out properly (and hence draining water near your foundation!). A 1” PVC bushing, secured to a 1” drain hose with a hose clamp, should be more than sufficient. You should position it low enough that your barrel will never be more than 90% full – that way, if you have a full barrel and you forget to drain it in the winter, even if the water expands, it won’t overfill your barrel (ice expands by just under 10%). An easy way to find this level would be to fill your barrel to the top with a hose, then bail out 6-7 gallons using a bucket or jug you know the volume of.
• Elevation (or other source of pressure) - Finally, unless you want to use a submersible pump to remove the water from your barrel (in which case you won’t need drainage), you’ll want something like bricks or cinder blocks to stand your barrel on. Raising your barrel will give the water in it more “head” or water pressure, and allow water to flow out of it by gravity from your hose. Whether you elevate it or not, make sure you’ve removed any soil that could shift and replace it with sand or packed inert soil (no organic matter, which could shift as the organic matter decomposes and could eventually lead to your barrel leaning or tipping).

Maintaining a rain barrel is essential for its longevity and for ensuring the water you collect is usable for its intended purpose. Here are some tips for keeping your rain barrel in good condition:

Regular Maintenance (As Needed):

• Check the System: Periodically inspect the entire system, including your gutters, downspout connection, the screen on top of the barrel, and the spigot. Make sure everything is functioning properly and that the barrel is stable and level on its foundation.

• Keep it Clear: Remove leaves, sediment, and other debris from the screen at the top of the barrel and from your roof gutters. This prevents clogs and ensures water can flow freely into the barrel.

• Use the Water: Regularly use the water you've collected. This prevents the water from becoming stagnant, which can lead to foul smells and algae growth. It also ensures there's enough room to collect water during the next rain event.

• Prevent Mosquitoes: A properly sealed rain barrel with an intact screen should prevent mosquitoes from breeding. If you do notice mosquito larvae, you can use a mosquito dunk (which contains a bacteria that is harmless to plants and animals) to kill the larvae. Alternatively, you can add a small amount of vegetable oil to the surface to create a barrier that suffocates the larvae.

Seasonal Cleaning:

• Annual Deep Clean: Once a year, typically before winter or at the beginning of spring, give your rain barrel a thorough cleaning.
  • Disconnect the barrel from the downspout.
  • Drain all the water and open the spigot.
  • Use a long-handled brush or broom to scrub the inside of the barrel.
  • You can use a non-toxic cleaning solution like a mixture of water and vinegar, or a mild dish soap. Some sources suggest a diluted bleach solution, but be sure to rinse it thoroughly to avoid harming plants.
  • Once cleaned, rinse the barrel with fresh water and allow it to dry completely.
  • Clean the screen, spigot, and overflow ports as well.
• Winterizing (for cold climates): This is a critical step to prevent damage from freezing water.
• Drain Completely: Before the first hard freeze, drain all the water from your rain barrel. Water left in the barrel can freeze, expand, and cause it to crack.
• Disconnect and Store: Disconnect the barrel from the downspout. If you have space, the best option is to store it indoors in a garage or shed.
• Outdoor Storage: If you must store it outside, turn it upside down to prevent it from collecting water. Leave the spigot open so any moisture can drain out. You can also cover the inlet with a secure plastic sheet.
• Adjust Downspout: Reconnect the downspout to its normal position or attach an extension to ensure that rainwater is directed away from your home's foundation during the winter months.

• Use drain strainers: Place mesh screens or strainers in all your sinks and shower drains to catch solid materials before they go down the pipe.
• Avoid chemical cleaners: While they may offer a quick fix, harsh chemical drain cleaners can corrode your pipes over time. Instead, use a plunger, a plumber's snake, or a natural solution of baking soda and vinegar for minor clogs.
• Conserve water: While not directly related to clogs, using water wisely reduces the volume of wastewater that needs to be treated, which lessens the burden on the entire system. See “Conserve Water” below for some easy, helpful tips on conserving water.