What are floatables?
A. Floatables are street litter and other trash that enter the storm sewer systems when it rains. In a combined sewer system, raw sanitary sewage is also present. Floatables can also result from a dry weather overflow of a sanitary sewer (a Sanitary Sewer Overflow or SSO). In several highly publicized instances, medical waste has represented a particularly dangerous form of floatable. This unsanitary and unsightly mix is discharged into receiving waters in an overflow condition. Floatables can cause injury to bathers and boaters; choke, strangle, and suffocate freshwater and marine fish, animals and birds; and impair the aquaculture in the sea, lake or river where their discharge occurs. Floatables can lead to beach and shellfish bed contamination and closings, and restricted use of recreational waters and beaches. Control of floatables is an important element of the national CSO control policy.
