| Related Information |
|---|
|
Keep Your Sewer Lean By Not Putting Fats, Oils, and Greases Down Your Drain
Fats, Oils, and Greases aren't good for your health or sewers!
Sewer overflows and backups can cause health hazards, harm the environment and damage your home. We are finding grease is a common culprit in blocking sewer pipes and causing overflows and sewer backups. Grease gets into the sewer from household drains and poorly maintained grease interceptors at restaurants or other businesses.
Grease and water don't mix….especially in a sewer system!! Having a sewer back-up in your home or business can be a troublesome event! How can customers prevent these from happening? Be sure to properly dispose of cooking grease. Grease is the number #1 cause of sewer blockages in homes.
Grease (including fats and oils) commonly is the byproduct from frying and cooking including vegetable oil, butter, margarine, lard and shortening. Grease also includes meat fats, food scraps, baking goods, gravy, sauces, mayonnaise, salad dressings and even dairy products.
Grease often is washed down the drain in the kitchen where it will stick to the insides of the sewer pipes on your property and in the streets. The grease then over time, will build up and block the entire sewer pipe. Avoid pouring cooking oil or other grease down the drain. Instead, pour grease into a heat-resistant container, let it cool, and throw it in the garbage.
Keep in mind that your garbage disposal does not prevent grease from building up in your plumbing system. Garbage disposals only shred solid material into smaller pieces. Your dishwasher removes grease from your kitchenware but does not get rid of the grease. Dish detergents don't get rid of grease either. The grease still enters your plumbing system with shredded solid material which can clog your pipes. Also, rinsing or flushing with hot water doesn't dissolve grease but could just push the grease farther down your sewer lines.
Grease build up can cause the following:
- Raw sewage overflowing in your home, yards, streets etc.
- An expensive and unpleasant cleanup that often must be paid for by the homeowner.
- Potential contact with untreated sewage which could cause illness.
As a homeowner, you can help solve the grease problem by keeping it out of your sewer system through the following practices:
- Never pour grease down sink drains or into toilets.
- Collect cooking grease in a container and dispose of it in the trash.
- Scrape grease and food scraps from trays, plates, pots, pans, utensils, and grills and cooking surfaces into the trash.
- Keep strainers in your drains to catch food scraps and other solids. Empty the strainer into the trash.
- Do not use your garbage disposal to shred solid material.
Please keep your sewer system grease free!
What else can you do to prevent sewer blockages?
Avoid drain pain - don't flush these things
- Dental floss
- Disposable diapers
- Egg shells, nutshells, and coffee grounds
- Fats, oils, and greases
- Food items containing seeds and peelings
- Hair
- Paper towels or rags
- Sanitary napkins, tampons, condoms, or any non-organic material
- Vitamins, medicines or other pharmaceuticals
A manhole is not a trashcan! Never lift a manhole cover! The Utilities Department crews often find items like buckets, cinder blocks, limbs, construction materials and other large pieces of garbage that have been disposed of in manholes. These items can very quickly cause blockages, which can result in sewer backing up into your home! If you see someone putting improper materials in the sewage system or down a manhole, please call the Utilities Department immediately at 703-771-2750 during normal business hours or call the police non-emergency number at 703-771-4500 after hours.
The tips below provide advice on what you can do to protect your sewer system from harsh chemicals, and keep pumps and manholes from becoming clogged or damaged by foreign objects. Because most sanitary sewer blockages occur between a house and the sewer main, following these simple tips can also help prevent a sewer line back-up in your home.
DO:
- Scrape excess grease into a container and dispose of it in the garbage. If your pots and pans are just oily or greasy, wipe them clean with a paper towel and put the soiled paper towel in the garbage
- Place food scraps in waste containers or garbage bags for disposal with solid wastes, and scrape off your dishes prior to washing.
- Place a wastebasket in the bathroom to dispose of solids materials and products.
- Use a strainer over the plughole in your sink, tub, and shower. Empty the collected material into the garbage.
- Compost! If you haven't got a compost heap, start one with lawn clippings, garden rubbish, and vegetable food scraps and use the compost to fertilize your garden.
- Use the manufacturer's recommended amount of detergent for washing up in the kitchen or laundry. The average household uses three times more detergent than manufacturers recommend for washing dishes and clothes. When these detergents enter the sewer system, they hold large amounts of oil, grease, and fats in suspension making cleaning and treating the waste water difficult and more costly. By cutting down on the amount of detergent used, there'll also be less phosphate in the environment to cause the growth of algae in water. And, you'll save money on detergents.
DON’T:
- Pour fats, oils, and grease from cooking down the sink drain.
- Pour paint, engine oil, pesticides or chemicals down the sink. This isn't only because of the threat of these hazards getting into the environment; but also because these chemicals pose a health threat to maintenance staff working in the sewers.
- Place jewellery and valuables on the edge of a basin or sink. Once dropped down a drain or flushed down the toilet, valuable and valued items are very difficult to recover. Also, take care not to drop other items such as dentures and wallets into the toilet.
- Flush paper towels, diapers, sanitary napkins, tampons, convenience pads, surgical bandages, syringes, condoms, cigarette butts, razor blades, cotton-tipped stems, or pantyhose down the toilet. Unlike bathroom tissues, these products do not deteriorate quickly. They can become lodged in portions of your sewer line, causing a sewer back-up. Rather than taking a chance, dispose of these paper products in the garbage.
- Do not use the toilet as a wastebasket or garbage can.
- Do not wash food scraps, tealeaves, coffee grounds, potato peels, and eggshells down the sink.
