Your arteries aren’t the only ones getting clogged when you eat fried food at restaurants. So are the Midland sanitary sewer pipes.

The City of Midland hopes to tighten control of grease dumped into its sanitary sewer system because the oily stuff has been clogging pipes, causing flow issues and leading to eventual backups.

The Midland City Council will vote August 11 on a proposal to limit grease concentrations to 100 milligrams per liter of waste-water. It got it;s first look at the proposal Monday night from Utilities Director Noel Bush.

“Grease discharged into sanitary sewers cools and congeals on the interior of the sanitary sewer pipes and in pumping station wet wells,” Bush said. This problem is caused by waste from restaurants and other grease producing establishments, but primarily restaurants”

Setting a limit would give the city an enforcement tool if a facility discharging the material is thought to have an inadequate grease removal system or is not maintaining its system.

“Benefits of a reduction in grease discharge would be reducing the number of blockages caused by grease in the sanitary sewer collection system and a reduction of the degreasing costs”, Bush said.

Removal systems can separate the grease and restaurants can have it hauled away to a processing facility. Otherwise it can clog pipes and the city has to removed the congealed material and haul it to a landfill.

While the ordinance would impact mostly restaurants, some homeowners also face clogging issues because of grease.

“There are some residents that use an enormous amount of oil in the preparation of their meals”, Bush said, and the city has worked with those homeowners on the proper storage and disposal of the grease.

“In general, the level of grease a household disposes of is adequately dissolved by soaps and other materials”, Bush said.

SOURCE: MIDLAND Daily News, by Tony Lascari