This article will cover municipal grease removal. There is always an establishment or a facility that manufactures food anywhere you end up in the United States. These companies are the number one producers of FOG (fats, oils, grease) in the country. With this, every municipality is governed by a grease or pretreatment ordinance that helps in preventing or lessening the amount of FOG being discharged into wastewater. As you may know, food establishments and food processing plants are considered huge contributors to the ongoing FOG crisis in America. If the FOG overflow isn’t controlled, so much damage to health, property, and the environment will persist.
Industries and institutions like food processing plants, meat processing plants, cafeterias, hospitals, and prisons are the largest producers of FOG and are considered the major causes of the FOG crisis in the United States. It’s common for these institutions to maintain the practice of pouring their grease materials down the drain as their method of disposal. This is why the grease trap is very important because normally, it regulates the amount of FOG that enters the wastewater system. If the grease trap is well-maintained, then it will be efficient enough to separate the grease materials and solid waste materials from the untreated effluent. But because of poor monitoring, inspection, and care, FOG overflow happens. In FOG overflow, the FOG combines with the wastewater and travels through the pipelines. They cool down as they travel and eventually solidify. The FOG then sticks to the walls of the pipes and causes blockage. Backing up of the untreated wastewater happens, resulting to major health, environmental, and property problems.
Municipal grease removal has to be performed efficiently so that the FOG won’t affect the smooth flow of the wastewater treatment system. The pipelines are supposed to be blockage-free because the wastewater needs to get to the treatment facility as fast as possible. If FOG gets into the pipes, the holding capacity of the pipe is cut down. There are times when the blockage is so severe that the pipes need to be replaced much sooner than the municipality administrators expected. This severely affects budget and even causes excavations that obstruct normal daily activities.
The grease trap or pretreatment ordinance is a regulation that aims to protect the wastewater treatment facility and the pipelines that lead to it. If the pipelines are protected from FOG accumulation, then wastewater back up is prevented. The ordinance indicates that the food manufacturer or establishment owner should have a grease trap that’s appropriately sized within the premises. This should have a permit and should always be properly maintained. The grease trap or grease interceptor will be inspected regularly by the municipality’s representative. With this ordinance, municipal grease removal has more attention now than ever before. This is a very strict ordinance to implement and follow because of the amount of FOG in the wastewater exceeds the accepted level, large fines will be paid, contamination will occur, and lawsuits will be faced.
Effective municipal grease removal needs the cooperation of the people involved in the food industry. They should make sure that their methods of maintaining their grease traps are indeed effective. There are some who clean up their grease traps once every week. Some do it more than this because they feel that their grease traps are filled too fast. If the establishment or facility owner finds it too taxing or costly to have the grease trap cleaned much too often, it would be more practical to have larger grease trap installed.
If municipal grease removal needs to be performed safely and quickly, then bacteria should be used. Bioremediation and bioaugmentation are the two processes that involve the use of these useful microorganisms. Bioremediation uses non-pathogenic bacteria to convert the FOG and solid wastes into less harmful forms. Bioaugmentation uses a selected strain of bacteria to break down the contaminants and the FOG. Using bacteria will remove the odors and will keep the environment safe from contamination. Bacteria are true helpers since even before the dawn of time.