Do you pour grease down the drain? Metro Vancouver says that’s clogging the pipes
Posted May 21, 2015 9:09 am.
Last Updated May 21, 2015 9:12 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Plugging in the deep fryer or throwing some bacon into a pan can lead to a yummy meal, but what you do with the leftover grease could be causing major problems.
Metro Vancouver says it’s leading to big issues for our pipes.
“The problem is that we still have a considerable amount of grease entering the sewer from both residential and commercial. It has a tendency to collect in the system and like a clogged artery, it constricts the flow and has the potential for overflows… back-flows into peoples’ property, out into the streets or any place that we don’t want it to go. We want to keep it within the pipes,” says Metro Vancouver Environmental Regulatory Planner Jeffrey Gogol.
It’s something the regional district is giving special attention to; it’s preparing to launch a campaign targeting homes in the fall, and businesses next year.
“What we’re looking to do is to do some pilot studies to try to do some behaviour change,” explains Gogol.
He adds they are trying to find out why we’re disposing of grease the way we are, and want to get programs in place to get us to change.
“We’ve done some initial survey and we’re going to do some more work trying to develop an approach that will work.”
Gogol says one way of getting rid of a small amount of grease properly is to wipe a pan with a paper towel and put it in your food scraps bin. You can do that in most municipalities.
“We’re going to go ahead and measure some of the grease that has collected in our wet wells [and] our pump stations before, during, and after… So that’s the amount of grease that gets into the sewer. [We will] also do some analysis when the municipalities and Metro Vancouver do the cleaning, so we can see how much is actually removed from the pipes. And of course, we’ll do surveys of people. Did they see our outreach? Was it effective? Did they get it? Did they understand it? With the pilot, we try to do a small area that we can easily measure effectiveness and then learn from that to roll it out into a larger program next year.”
More than $2 million is spent every year by Metro and municipalities to remove grease.
The proposed price tag of the project is $164,000.