What might have looked likeharmless leftover grease from a Sunday breakfast tossed down the drain sparked a more than 500,000-gallon sewage overflow earlier this year in Laurel, Howard officials said.
Now officials are warning residents that pouring oil and grease down the drain is a major cause of sewage backups and has caused about half of the spills.
“When each person puts just a little bit in their own sinks in their own kitchens, it builds up and builds up,” County Executive Ken Ulman said at a news conference Monday in Centennial Park in Ellicott City where officials announced a public education campaign.
Fats, oils and grease ? byproducts from cooking ? caused seven of the 14 overflows in Howard in 2007, according to Maryland Department of the Environment data. Local jurisdictions notify MDE of every spill, and in Howard, the public is notified anytime a spill affects a waterway.
In Anne Arundel, grease caused four spills, totaling more than 9,000 gallons.
Spills caused by fats, oils and grease tend to be higher-volume spills ? in the tens of thousands of gallons rather than a few hundred, said Steve Gerwin, Howard?s utilities chief, adding he wasn?t sure why the volume was higher.
“You graphically can see big chunks of grease. You know it when you see it,” Gerwin said of tracing the cause of the spill back to the fats, oils and grease.
Some jurisdictions are focused more on fats, oils and grease than others. Areas with aging systems are more concerned with fixing the infrastructure than with curbing the effects of grease, officials said.
For Howard?s newer system, which has grown since the 1960s and 1970s, the fats and oils pose a “major problem,” MDE Secretary Shari Wilson said at the news conference.
Although the state is working to upgrade the 66 major wastewater treatment plants to reduce pollution, residents also have to adjust to protect the environment, Wilson said.
“We?re not going to get to our restoration goals without each of us making changes in our lifestyles,” she said.
“Cumulatively it all adds up.”
Not everyone knows the grease and oil left in the pan should be placed in cans or jars and thrown away, Gerwin said.
“The last place it should end up is down the garbage disposal,” he said.
