The Virginian-Pilot
©
VIRGINIA BEACH
City engineer Brad Law peered down an open manhole to the clogged sewer pipe below the shopping center parking lot.
"A little bit of everything in there," he said Friday morning.
The noxious mix of what you might expect included a key culprit singled out by Law: food grease. It's called FOG, an acronym for fats, oils and grease. The problem, which causes most sewer backups, worsens in the winter as hot grease coagulates when it hits cold pipes, forming a slimy barrier.
Law explained, "The toilet paper flows pretty good with water, but the grease stops it up because it solidifies when it gets cold."
Under pressure from federal and state environmental agencies and tired of spending at least $1 million a year to clean clogged pipes, city officials are preparing to crack down on businesses, mainly restaurants, that fail to stop grease from going down the drain. School cafeterias and hospitals also would be affected.
A proposed ordinance would require restaurant owners to register their grease filtering system with the city, keep maintenance records and pay a $100 to $150 annual fee.
The law would give city officials the right to inspect grease systems, a power they don't have now. The proposed penalty for malfunctioning systems? The city would shut the water off.
"We need to be able to say, 'I need you to show us your kitchen. I need you to show us your grease trap,' " said Tom Leahy, director of public utilities.
State law requires restaurants to have functioning grease traps, but no one enforces the rule, he said. "It's basically the honor system."
Restaurateurs who oppose the fee system feel singled out, said Jerry Bryan, owner of Coastal Grill and vice president of the Virginia Beach Restaurant Association.
Apartment buildings, for example, are not required to have grease traps.
"There are lots of sides to this issue," Bryan said. "The food services industry is a contributing party, but we are in no way the primary offender. There's not a restaurant that's pouring grease down the drain."
Leahy said the problem is not that restaurants are dumping grease from deep fryers into city pipes. Instead, the issue is what's known as "brown grease." That's the residue that comes from cooking food like the kind advertised in big white letters on the window of a diner near where Law and city workers were cleaning pipes Friday.
"Burgers, Chili, Pasta, Meatloaf, Philly Steak, Fish, New York Rueben."
In addition to regularly clogged pipes, the city is facing a bureaucratic problem. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the state Department of Environmental Quality mandate that Virginia Beach, like many other large cities, take action to battle grease.
The agencies want to know by the end of the month what Virginia Beach plans to do to crack down. The actual regulations could take e ffect in the spring, after a vote by the City Council.
Bryan maintained that the restaurants will face a burden disproportionate to their contribution to the problem.
He said, "They're trying to start somewhere, and a great place to start is restaurants."
Aaron Applegate, (757) 222-5122, aaron.applegate@pilotonline.com
Delicious
Digg
Reddit
Facebook
Twitter
Google
Yahoo
Chrisald
It would be a great world if we all only ate a burger or other greasy item once a week, but people are people and I don't want to consider the alternative of dictating to people what they can and can't eat . . .
How about introduce an
How about introduce an organism that eats the grease inside the pipes? How about develop run-off storage bins where the outgoing water from the restaurant can sit and separate from the grease which can then be skimmed off...
You just exactly described a grease trap system except the microbes are used inside the trap to break down the oils and not in the pipes. The problem is restaurants don't have them or are not maintaining them. Here's a good drawing:
http://herringsanitation.com/Grease%20trap.jpg
How about introduce an
How about introduce an organism that eats the grease inside the pipes? How about develop run-off storage bins where the outgoing water from the restaurant can sit and separate from the grease which can then be skimmed off before the water is pumped out into the sewer system? How about encouraging restaurants to move to food items that are less greasy? If patrons ate out less where this type of food was served they would reduce the amount of grease in the lines while also reducing the amount of grease in their bodies and saving money. What about take the $1,000,000 cost to the city and dividing it up between the restaurants? If there are 1,000 restaurants then the city could charge a fee of $85 a month to each eatery and cover the cost of cleanup. They could create a $1,000,000 budget for a specific team of people to clear lines.
Apartments?
Apartments are not required to have these traps says the restaurant owner? He's probably one of the ones who does not have the grease trap. A house or even an apartment complex in no way generates as much grease as even a small restaurant. Yes they have grease dumpsters in the back, but as someone who worked in the restaurant industry in my college days, I can tell you that the only oil that goes in there is from the deep fryer. All the other oil from cooking in pots and pans goes right down the drain.
Hah! ANOTHER TAX from VB city govt!
Just like the "Home Security System tax" reported on previously. Last week it was VB city govt. forcing homeowners to register their systems with the city (so they know just who to charge) AND PAY A MANDATORY FEE. This week it's restaurants being forced to register their grease systems with the city (so they know just who to charge) AND PAY A MANDATORY FEE. I tell you what- I thought we had it bad here in P-town but those people living, working, or owning a business in VB have it rough!