Como Mayor Darla Henry is asking residents to stop sending most things down the drain -- they're clogging up the city's waste disposal pipes.
Henry says a combination of food grease, diapers, hygiene products, condoms, and “flushable wipes” have congealed in the city’s septic systems. The melange has led to 12 cumulative feet of what is often called a "fatberg" -- a hard-to-remove solid that clings to pipes like barnacles to a boat. And it's costing the city a lot of money it doesn't have allotted for this kind of thing, she says.
"We have to hire in plumbers from Sulphur Springs or Winnsboro to come help us out," Henry says.
So far this year, not even two weeks in, she says, the cost of these service calls already hit $2,700, in a town with only 702 official residents. So if it’s not actual toilet paper or actual human waste, Mayor Henry is asking Como residents not to send it down any toilets or drains.
"Don’t do it," she says. "You know, just don’t do it, just put it in the trash. And ultimately, everybody’s going to save some money."
