PASCO COUNTY, Fla. — Arlie Hoskins admits he has a dirty job.
“It doesn’t gross me out that bad. You get used to the smell, believe it or not," said Hoskins, a special equipment operator.
But it’s a job crucial to keeping Pasco County’s sewer system flowing.
Arlie and his partner Juan take this vacuum truck to pump stations to suck up the muck.
They’ve found small toys and keys.
But most of the trouble is caused by people sending kitchen grease down the drain and flushing cleaning wipes, even the ones marked as disposable.
“I feel like, especially at home with my wife, I’m like you can’t flush that, or I’ll tell people you can’t flush it even though it says it can flush it,” said Hoskins.
Pasco’s Waste Water Services department said while wipes advertised as flushable will go down, they don’t easily break down and cause blockages in the sewer system, leading to costly backups and overflows that can impact public health and the environment.
“They would mix with the grease and oils that are in the system, and by the time they get tumbled through the pipes, they can just turn into long pieces of almost rope that can be several feet long, and it’s pretty hard to clean out,” said Wally Wittaniemi, Waste Water Services Director.
That’s where Arlie and Juan come along.
Breaking down tens of thousands of gallons of goop and sucking it up with this vacuum tube.
“The county has 810 lift stations, so our guys are pretty busy," said Wittaniemi.
It is a dirty job, and Arlie and Juan are the ones who do it.
“It is, and it’s not meant for a lot of people. But I love it. It gets me to wake up every morning. I enjoy coming to work every day,” said Hoskins.
