Don't Pour Fats, Oils, or Grease Down the Drain

Bay Area Clean Water Agencies (BACWA) is encouraging residents not to pour fats, oils, and grease (FOG) down the drain. This poses a potentially severe threat to Bay Area sewer collection systems. When poured down the drain, FOG solidifies and can clog pipes, costing cities and sewer agencies tens of millions of dollars every year for clean-up, as well as from fines resulting from sewer overflows into a creek or the Bay. The dollars add up for residents too: clogs in sewer lines can result in sewage backups and overflows into the home, causing costly repairs to the pipes and your property. The Bay Area Pollution Prevention Group is asking residents to enjoy all holidays by not pouring grease and other cooking byproducts, such as gravy or sauces, down the drain. An even better reason to recycle: In many cities around the Bay, recycling cooking oil not only reduces waste and unclogs sewers, it also serves as an alternative fuel source that powers many city-owned and operated vehicles. What should you do with fats, oils, and grease? Follow these simple step-by-step disposal instructions: Use food strainers in kitchen sinks to catch food particles and scrape leftover food waste into the garbage or compost container, not the garbage disposal. Pour cooking oil into a clean, sealable container. Check http://www.BayWise.org for free drop-off locations near you.

 

Comments

[Harry The Scam]

How much gas will be used to bring grease to be converted to biofuel? Let's see, half a gallon of gas to make half a pint of biofuel. This obviously is a liberal idea.

[Dan B. Underhill]

I am a plumber and I do some drain cleaning.
It often amazes me what some people erroneously believe their plumbing systems will do for them. Paper, potted plants, paint, and plaster rank right up there. Grease and oil won't just clog the city lines, but first will clog your own personal plumbing system. I appreciate the work, but solids and things like cooking oil and fat that will become solid as soon as they cool should be disposed of in some other way.

[todd bray]

Kris, human stool is considered a fat/grease in the pipes. Your comment is good advice for your home drain, but the sewer system is more than fully equipped to handle it as the amounts of solid human waste far exceed your household grease. Ask Dave Gromm at the treatment plant about this.

[Kris Perez Krow]

The problem with fats and grease in the sewer systems is the clogging effect in the pipes (like arteries) and clogged pipes can cause sewer overflows and spills of untreated raw sewage. If your pipes are clogged and all your poop comes out of the clean out and runs down the street into the storm drain... that's the problem. Untreated waste in the storm drain, raw sewage in the street. The storm water doesn't get treated, it goes to the ocean (or the Bay, if you live elsewhere). If you have a restaurant without a grease trap, and their grease ends up clogging the main sewer line a block away from them, soon there will be raw sewage coming out somewhere - in your home, in the street...etc. Yes, of course, the treatment plant can handle the fats, grease, proteins, organics, oils etc that come into the treatment facility.

[todd bray]

Jen,

The same thing happens to poo. Poo is classified the same as oil and grease. Poo is a much thicker fat than grease or cooking oil when it cools. The proportion of grease/poo/oils in the wastewater stream is only .0025 of 100%. What routinely clogs the system isn't fats or grease but sanitary napkins and rags--simple rags.

But ask Dave Gromm. He runs the plant. Cooking oil and grease are not even on the radar.

It's not a good idea to pour cooking oil or grease down a home drain because a home drain is usually only 1-3/8" in diameter. That is an easy pipe to clog.

[Jen Jackson]

Yes, treatment plants can remove cooking oil grease, IF it gets to them. The bugs love that stuff! It's whether the grease can get to the wastewater plant that is the problem. Imagine what happens to olive oil when you put it in the fridge. It coagulates. Grease will solidify when it hits a cold pipe, and can cause a clog in the sewer line -- and therefore it doesn't make it to the treatment plant. 25% of sewage overflows are caused by grease clogs, according to the EPA.

[todd bray]

DUUUUDE, I can barely read THE lines.

[Peter Loeb]

Anybody with half a brain knows not to put fat, oil, or grease down your drain, if only because it will soon result in a desperate call to Dan B. Underhill or your plumber of choice.

[todd bray]

The funny thing is that #2 or pooh or bio-solids are mostly grease, so the sewer systems are set up to handle carrying grease or bio-solids. In Pacifica, pooh or bio-mass is classified as a fat/grease (source: Dave Gromm, treatment plant supervisor). The ratio of grease to water in sewage is .0025 on a heavy day.

So this piece seems more propaganda than fact. Who wrote it?

(Editor's Note: As it says in the piece, it is from the Bay Area Clean Water Agencies with a link to its site. Read between the lines, my son.)