BALTIMORE — With the holidays approaching, Baltimore's Department of Public Works is reminding residents to keep fat, oil and grease out of garbage disposals and the city sewer system to prevent costly and messy backups.
WATCH: Keep cooking grease out of drains this holiday season, Baltimore DPW warns
The substances, known as FOG, solidify once they cool and can create massive blockages called "fatbergs" in sewer pipes. These accumulations combine grease with other debris like rags and hair, building up until they block entire sections of the sewer system.
"Grease and like rags and all kinds of stuff you can imagine hair in the sewer and it builds and builds and builds to a ball and they call it a fat bird because it gets so big and obviously those can block up sewer pipes, you know, they're 8 inch pipes, 12 inch pipes, and they get big enough they would cause constrictions in the sewer and back the sewer up," said Timothy Wolfe, chief of the Office of Engineering Construction for DPW.
Baltimore experienced a significant fatberg problem in 2017 when one blockage restricted approximately 85 percent of sewage flow in the city.
Clearing these blockages requires extensive work and resources from DPW crews. Workers must conduct inspections to locate the problem, then use vacuum trucks and other specialized equipment to remove the buildup from the sewer system.
"It's a lot of work for us to clear sewers. We have to go in and do TB inspection to find out where the issue is, and then we have to get it out of the sewer. We use either VC trucks, you know, or different methods to get it out of the sewer system, and we have crews and equipment to do that. And then if it starts backing up more and the flow can't get through, it can back up. You know, the streets and things like that cause other problems in the area," Wolfe said.
Instead of pouring cooking grease down the drain, officials recommend collecting fat, oil and grease in disposable cans and containers, then freezing them before disposal in regular trash.
"Basically when you're cooking, pour it in a can or some rigid storage thing and you can put it in the freezer. It freezes, and we actually have handout caps you can put on cans and you put it in the trash. … So keep it out of the sewer, keep it out of your sink is the best approach," Wolfe said.
Officials are asking residents to keep their neighbors and DPW workers in mind during the holiday cooking season to help everyone enjoy the festivities without sewer-related disruptions.
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