BROOKINGS – There are no “fatbergs” in Brookings. But they have been in the news, especially in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic as a lot of Americans were flushing stuff that shouldn’t be flushed – like those “flushable” wipes that doubled for toilet paper during the hoarding days that led to TP shortages.

A Wikipedia entry describes a “fatberg” as “a rock-like mass of waste matter in a sewer system formed by the combination of flushed non-biodegradable solids, such as wet wipes, and congealed grease or cooking fat.”

One found in April 2020 in Melbourne, Australia, weighed in at 42 tons and was “the size of a petrol tanker.” It “was blamed primarily on the shortage of toilet paper caused by the COVID-19 outbreak.”