Anchorage Assembly takes up wipes ban in city sewers June 23

Flushing a disposable wipe in Anchorage could soon carry a fine of up to $1,000. The Anchorage Assembly is scheduled to take a first reading June 23 on AO 2026-94, an ordinance that would explicitly ban all disposable wipes from the municipal sewer system regardless of how the product is labeled. A public hearing and final vote would follow the first reading.

Assembly Members Erin Baldwin Day and Zac Johnson sponsored the measure. It amends Anchorage Municipal Code Section 26.50.050 to add disposable wipes to the list of prohibited discharges and invokes existing Title 14 fines of $75 to $1,000 per documented violation.

The Scale of the Problem

The ordinance and memorandum cite several cost and volume estimates. Anchorage Water and Wastewater Utility's Asplund Wastewater Treatment Facility receives an estimated 6,000 to 7,000 pounds of wipes every day. In 2025, labor and landfill costs at Asplund alone reached roughly $208,000. Pump repairs and emergency responses across the broader collection system add thousands more. Since 2021, wipe-related blockages have caused at least 25 sanitary sewer overflows, backing sewage into Anchorage homes, streets, and green spaces, according to the ordinance text. The memorandum notes that wipes combine with fats, oils, and grease in sewer mains to form congealed masses, sometimes called fatbergs, that are a key driver of those overflows.

"For the wastewater industry, the cost of wipes in it is horrendous," Sandy Baker, AWWU's public outreach coordinator, said in a December 2024 Anchorage Daily News article attached to the ordinance memorandum. Brian Schmitz, superintendent of the Asplund facility, described the masses that form when wipes tangle in machinery. "We call 'em 'rope rags,'" Schmitz said in the same article.

Rate Relief and Resident Impact

The sponsors frame the ordinance partly as a rate-stabilization tool. The memorandum states that reducing wipe-related maintenance costs will slow upward pressure on sewer bills. The Assembly recently voted to allow a proposed roughly 5 percent rate increase for AWWU customers. If state regulators approve the plan, it would mean approximately $72 more per year on ratepayers' water bills. Residents and businesses would face no new disposal costs under the ordinance; wipes can go in existing trash service.

The WIPPES Act, a federal labeling bill co-sponsored by former U.S. Representative Mary Peltola, passed Congress and was sent to the Senate, where it has remained in the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee.