Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
OREM — Every day we send water down the drain, and many of us don't think twice about where it goes.
In Orem, there's a bit of a mystery going on, and city officials are asking for help in getting to the bottom of their water woes.
"Sewer treatment is not a glamorous job," said Neil Winterton, manager of the city's Water Resources Division.
It's a job Winterton has been doing for the past 17 years. When it comes to the water business, he dives in head first.
"It's a public service that's absolutely necessary, and we take extreme pride in it," he said.
Every day, nearly 8 million gallons of water go through the Orem Waste Water Treatment plant. That water, Winterton says, is comprised of "everything that comes from the shower, the dishwasher, floor, drains, sinks and of course the toilets."
For the past seven months, something's been clogging up their operation — and fixing it requires a little more than a plunger.
"It's coming in and clumping, and it causes problems with our pumps," Winterton said.
Someone has been disposing of a substance and it ends up at the treatment plant, he said. Over the holidays, the dumping seemed to stop — until now.
"In eight days we've had three dumps," Winterton said.
Lab testing found the material to be organic fiber, most likely paper. Winterton estimates cleaning it up has cost the city and people of Orem close to $100,000.
"It's certainly not going away," he said.
Faced with the difficult task of finding the source of the problem, city officials are turning to something resembling a marketing campaign: a billboard and T-shirts.
"We just ran with it," Winterton said. "We didn't want to take away from the seriousness of it, but we also wanted to brand it."
That brand is the "Phantom Dumper."
"Seeping while you're sleeping," Winterton read from one of the T-shirts for sale at the city office.
"We just tried to come up with something that would be catchy and stay in people's minds," he said.
Until the phantom is caught, Winterton's job is to keep the public's water where it belongs — down the drain.
"We would really appreciate having this stop," he said.
One thing the public can do to help, Winterton said, is to keep your eyes open for large vehicles parked over manhole covers. If you see anything suspicious, you're asked to called police or report a tip on the city's website.
City administrators are offering a $2,500 reward for information leading to the person responsible for the illegal dumping.
