Wastewater treatment plant officials reported that there is a noticeable surge in sewage flow and a drop in water pressure during halftime the Super Bowl.
The Reporter stated that even though the sewage flow spike hits the Bay Area in California, officials have found few tangible repercussions.
However, in Miami, the Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Department requested that local football fans try to spread their trips to the restrooms throughout the game, to lessen the impact on the sewer system. The Department even asked fans to consider single-ply toilet paper.
During last year's Super Bowl, the wastewater plant in Vallejo, Calif., received a noticeable bump in inflow during halftime.
Jennifer Kaiser, spokeswoman for the Vallejo Sanitation and Flood District, reported that there were up-ticks in the flows around half time and after the game ended last year.
Tyrone Jue, spokesman for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, reported that no other television event, including the World Series and the Olympics, causes a noticeable increase.
A wastewater expert reported that realistically, a water customer might only notice that the water flow is slightly slower than normal during the half-time show this year.
Joe Haworth, member of the California Association of Sanitation Agencies Public Education Committee, told The Reporter that the effects are not as immediate on the wastewater side, since sewage can sometimes take hours to reach wastewater plants.
Source: The Reporter