I live in the city and I have a good sewer line (because I just replaced my main sewer line, that was a big expense).

When I sharpen on my Tormek, I am often left with a lot of waste from the stone in a trough and I worry about dumping that in my drain. Growing up on the farm, my Mother used a Rainbow vacuum cleaner, that ran the air through water and she dumped that water with all its dirt into the toilet and it flushed into the septic tank, which in retrospect also seems wrong.

Now consider this quote from another post (https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread....13#post3007113)

Quote Originally Posted by Tom M King View Post
I don't soak the Sigma's, but do use them under running water. There is no time spent getting ready, other than putting whichever one I use on the stone holder, which is not tightened for any, turn the water on, and go to work. I have a dedicated sharpening sink now, and water runs out of the ground, all around here, so I'm not really wasting water.

edited to add: The only reason for soaking is so some stands on the surface. If the stone soaks it in, you have to put enough on it until it doesn't just soak it up. Soaking does that, but also, being supplied a constant supply on the surface, it doesn't matter if the stone is soaking it up, or not.
So, as Tom sharpens, he is running grit down the drain. When I flatten my stones, I do it under running water, which I am sure runs much more down the drain than what Tom is doing.

I found out that my wife mops the floor in the basement and then dumps the dirty water down the drain. These all feel like a similar problem.

At what point do I need to worry about running things down my drain? I do not really understand if this stuff catches in the traps.

I am NOT running a business sharpening tools and burning up my stones, so even though it looks like a lot of grit in the bottom of my containers, perhaps it is not as bad as I think and maybe I do not need to make the trek from my basement to dump the water outside after a long sharpening session.

In my mind, running very heavy stuff down the drain just worries me a bit.