A flippant flusher has cost Wood Village $16,000 in maintenance fees by tossing paper towels into toilets and pulling the lever, reports The Gresham Outlook. (This person could, hypothetically, also be pressing a button or triggering a motion sensor but you get the gist.)

The culprit has been flushing somewhere in a 27-tenant business park of Shea Lane, where all three buildings on site are connected to the same sewage line. That's making it impossible for city officials to tell where the clogs originate, the newspaper reports.

Paper towels and napkins aren't designed to dissolve in water, unlike their bathroom-friendly counterparts. That means the hardy cleaning supplies can make their way through municipal sewage systems and wreak havoc on pumps that aren't meant to handle the load.

Emergency crews have serviced the Wood Village sewer system every 10 days, the Outlook reports, at a price tag of at least $900 per instance.

Clogs may also cause trouble for a local business outside of the headaches reserved for maintenance workers.

A recent survey by toilet paper and napkin maker Sofidel shows that 86 percent of Americans say they would hold a negative view of a business if it had a clogged toilet.

City officials in Wood Village say finding the culprit is a priority.

"Somebody has to pay," City Manager Bill Peterson said during a February city council meeting.

--Eder Campuzano | 503.221.4344

ecampuzano@oregonian.com