Sanitary sewer overflow

Okay kiddo, so you know when you go to the bathroom and you flush the toilet, all that stuff goes down a pipe and disappears? Well, imagine if there were a lot of pipes like that, all over your neighborhood, your city, and even your whole state!

Now, usually, all that yucky stuff from the toilets, sinks, and showers goes through those pipes and ends up at a special place called a treatment plant. There, the icky stuff is cleaned up so that it doesn't hurt anyone or the environment.

But sometimes, when there's too much rain or too much flushed down the pipes, those pipes can get too full. When that happens, there's nowhere for the yucky stuff to go except up and out of the pipes! That's when we have a "sanitary sewer overflow."

It's kind of like a big toilet that's not flushing properly. Instead of going to the treatment plant, the extra yucky stuff overflows into the streets, parks, and rivers. It might look and smell gross, and it can make people and animals sick.

To stop this from happening, we can try to use less water and not flush things that don't belong in the toilet. That way, the pipes won't get so full and the yucky stuff can always make it safely to the treatment plant.