BANGOR, Maine — The city is asking its residents to stop dumping kitchen grease down the drains to avoid a series of “grease plugs” the city has had to deal with recently.
Greases and oils dumped into drains pass into sewer lines, where they can congeal, plugging up the sewer system and creating overflows and backups.
“These backups are unsightly, unsanitary and also violate U.S. [Environmental Protection Agency] and Maine [Department of Environmental Protection] Clean Water Act permits held by the city,” Bangor officials said in a press release Friday.
The city has asked residents to never pour grease down sinks or into toilets, but instead to place it in a can or the garbage for proper disposal. Also, garbage disposals don’t prevent grease from entering the sewer system.
Homeowners and restaurants also are asked to set their hot water heaters to 140 degrees or less. If a dishwashing system or hot water sink gets hotter than 160 degrees, it thins out the grease and sends it past the lateral pipeline, allowing it into the city sewer, where it later solidifies.
UGH! People should know better. Laziness?
They have never had to deal with the results! I learned not to let grease go down the drain as a child. We had a septic system:when it backed up it would flood the basement-EW.
Bangorian true side has surfaced, LAZY. I knew they sat on their computer posting all day eating fatty food.
Salt in the dishwater along with a greasebuster like Dawn will break the grease up really well. Does this prevent the problem further down the pipe? It seems to work when washing dishes and rinsing the sink out so don’t know the answer to this question.
Good idea to use DAWN for breaking up the grease.
When I used to work on the fishing boat after a fuel spill or
changing filters we would squirt DAWN liberally on the deck of the
boat and in the water around the boat to break up the oils.
….Worked like a charm. Still does.
…And no pesky Coast Guard sniffing around.
You would not be calling them Pesky if your boat was sinking and you needed them.
If my boat was sinking I would be calling ” Mayday,Mayday,Mayday”.
On Channel16.
Great answer! That’s just the point I was going to make: In that case you would be calling them! Probably our first agreement RHSC. Woot!
How much Dawn are you talking about because won’t that over suds and whats up with the salt won’t that beat your dishes to death?
I don’t use salt on the dishes but salt dissolves in water so salt won’t beat anything to death that I know of. A burnt on greasy frypan soaked with salt and a bit of Dawn cleans very well. No one ever told me about salt until recently, and I used to scrub hard and get lots of grease all over the place. This works so well, try it.
Well thank you, I will give it a try.
Baking Soda works really well too. I use it in my dish water with the washing up liquid.
I use that to clean my mouth and teeth as well. Better than toothpaste, and if you use spring water you can avoid taking in the fluoride as well.
Sorry folks, but I have every intention of continuing my practice of dumping grease down the drain. You’ll have to come up with another solution.
Let me guess …?
Deep fried Twinkies.?
Or maybe midnight french fries ?
Yummy treats.
As Bangorian waddles back to the computer for some more obnoxious posts.
Mmm, mmm, mmm — NOW you’re talkin.’ Damn the arteries, full speed ahead!!! Hey, wait, no more Twinkies… Ahh, deep-fried Little Debbie Cakes…LOL Just joking, but I do recall when everything, I mean everything, was fried in LARD…
I heard somewhere (midwest)that you can get deepfried butter
as a snack at State fairs and carnivals.
I believe it is what they call Fair Food.
Either way , I will always love a corn dog.
It’s people like you that we need less of.
“You’ll have to come up with another solution.”
My suggestion: random spot checks by Code Enforcement around the city, with heavy fines for abusers. You are lucky to have a sewer line to connect to, it keeps the local waters cleaner. And you are already paying for the service, and the extra clearing of the blockages, with your taxes.
Some people will only do the right thing if you make it expensive for them to do the wrong thing.
Come on, Bangorian, how hard is it to pour your grease into a can? Speaking of which–maybe you need to rethink your diet, if you have that much grease…just saying. Cannot remember the last time I fried something, and I do cook daily.
They more times they have to fix plugs, the more they will have to raise your sewer rates. Hope you’re ready to pay up.
That is very irresponsible of you and you of all people. I don’t ever want to ever see a nasty comment from you about our gov, conservatives, tea party supporters … If you can’t behave like a responsible stewart of the earth than you are the phoniest poster on this site. My mother taught me to never throw grease down the drain, what is wrong with you?
Progressives show their true colors with their actions while constantly berating others.
Everyone likes to talk about personal responsibility until it applies to them.
should we expect anything else from your “entitlement” mentality.
My grandparents poured bacon fat in a coffee can, reused it for a little time before it got rancid, and disposed of it in the coffee can as well with other oils when they were done with the bacon fat.
We do something similar. Keep a cup with bacon grease in the fridge. You would be surprised how much flavor is added to a lot of things by throwing in a teaspoon or so of bacon grease in place of oil or butter, etc.
Same here; we keep a glass jar in the fridge. Each time we cook bacon, we pour the grease into the jar, using a paper coffee filter to keep out the crumbs. All kinds of delicious ways to use a little dab of bacon grease.. my favorites are using it instead of butter in the pan for making grilled cheese sandwiches, & for making stove-top popcorn. YUM!
Your grease, your drain, pally. Just don’t come here carrying-on after the ‘outrageous’ $400. plumbers bill or the Liquid Drano eats a hole in a trap or elbow LOL
You should see some the stuff I flush, WOW!!! Thats what good fiber does for ya.
And just dying to tell everybody about that, too, eh? Try Dear Abby next time…
Thought that was common sense.
It is common sense, but unfortunately, you either have it or you don’t. It’s not something that can be easily taught. How much thought is required to know that the grease is going to clog up your own kitchen drain even before it gets into the sewer system?
Hey there are people that are dumb enough to pour epoxy down the sink, it happened at a place I worked once.
Epoxy, oil-based paint, lacquer thinner, 30W motor oil — name a chemical and there’s been somebody tossed it down a slop sink…
Uhm…Lazy much? Everyone doesn’t already know that pouring grease down the drain isn’t a good idea???
It’s not that people are dumping the grease down the drains….it’s peoples diets….everything fried and fattening… that’s why everyone is obease,
I wonder how many people with septic tanks dump their grease. I put mine in a covered jar for garbage pickup.
How can they ask Restaurants for 140 degrees in a high Temp Dishwasher (which 90% of places have ) when the law requries 160 degrees in the wash cycle and 180 degrees in the rinse cycle.
Usually takes a lot more than some folks pouring left-over Crisco down the drain to main clog a sewer line — any restaurants along that line?