The city of Wyoming, MN has filed suit against six makers of flushable wipes, arguing that the so-called flushable wipes are clogging their sewers and costing the city big money, reports startribune.com.

“These flushable wipes do not degrade after flushing,” the city of Wyoming’s suit says. “Rather, the flushable wipes remain intact long enough to pass through private wastewater drain pipes into the municipal sewer line, causing clogs and other issues for municipal and county sewer systems and wastewater treatment plants, resulting in thousands, if not millions, of dollars of damages.”

Industry representatives claim that the flushable wipes aren’t the issue, contending that products that aren’t meant to be flushed, such as baby wipes, are the real culprits.

This isn’t the first lawsuit the wipes industry has faced. In 2014, a New York man sued Kimberly-Clark Corp. and Costco Wholesale Corp. in federal court with a class-action-styled complaint that featured “homeowner horror stories” of “flushable” wipes clogging homes’ plumbing.

Wet wipes were blamed as part of the cause of the giant “fatberg” found in the London sewers.

“We have 59,000 miles of sewer and fat and wet wipes are the main partners in 'sewer abuse' crime," Simon Evans, a Thames Water spokesman told theguardian.com.

"The wipes break down and collect on joints and then the fat congeals. Then more fat builds up. It's getting worse. More wet wipes are being used and flushed.”

Wyoming is seeking “a declaration that the defendants’ flushable wipes do not degrade and are not sewer safe,” an order that the companies stop advertising them as such, and the establishment of a fund to compensate cities for the costs of cleaning and removing wipes from their sewer systems.

“They want to make sure that people know that these things really aren’t flushable,” Blanchfield said.

Read the StarTribune article: http://www.startribune.com/minnesota-city-sues-makers-of-flushable-wipes-over-clogged-sewers/301228331/