That the Oregon Legislature is devoting not only time, but actual legislation, to the issue of disposable wipes might seem an especially noxious example of lawmakers meddling in matters beyond their bailiwick.

The situation can also inspire the sort of scatological humor that appeals to pre-teen boys.

But in this case lawmakers had a good reason for delving into the topic.

It seems likely, at any rate, that most people would consider keeping sewer pipes flowing freely a good reason.

Certainly anybody who has been on the wrong end of a plugged pipe would agree.

On June 8, Gov. Kate Brown signed into law House Bill 2344. Her signature made Oregon the second state — following Washington, in 2020 — to require packages of disposable wipes to include a “do not flush” label.

The problem, as Baker City officials have discovered over the past several years, is that baby wipes and other similar products marketed as “flushable” don’t really qualify as such.

Although these products generally will swirl down the toilet without clogging it, they can, in volume, block sewer pipes. Those products don’t deteriorate as rapidly as toilet paper so they can accumulate in pipes.

Several times the Baker City Public Works Department, in responding to reports of sewer problems, has found masses of flushable wipes (and other debris that also got stuck) in a pipe.

The National Association of Clean Water Agencies (which is preferable, surely, to associations of dirty water agencies) estimated in a 2020 report that clogs caused by these products boost operational costs by $440 million per year nationally.

The Oregon bill was a priority for the League of Oregon Cities, the Oregon Association of Clean Water Agencies and the Special Districts Association of Oregon.

The potential benefit from Oregon’s new labeling law is hardly limited, however, to cities and other government agencies responsible for sewer pipes.

Michelle Owen, Baker City’s public works director, said in an interview last year that flushable wipes actually are more likely to block the smaller-diameter lateral lines that connect homes to the city’s larger pipes.

And homeowners, not the city, are responsible for unclogging those lateral lines.

In other words, if you flush a lot of those wipes, you’re more apt to cause trouble for yourself than for the city.

And although the new law doesn’t prohibit people from continuing to flush those products — monetary fines and other potential punishments are limited to those that make, or sell, such products without labels — at least you’ll be warned in advance of the possible messy consequences.

— Jayson Jacoby, Baker City Herald editor