LAUREL, Md. — The holidays are here and self-proclaimed chefs are making appearances in homes across the country. When your inner Paula Deen tries out those celebrity chef recipes or your grandmother’s deep fried turkey recipe, WSSC wants you to add one final step…Can, Cool and Throw Away any leftover cooking oil or grease!
The last thing anybody wants this holiday season is to deal with an overflowing kitchen sink or flooded basement due to clogged pipes. DO NOT DUMP oil or grease down the drain.
· Fats, oils and grease (FOG) that go down the drain will eventually harden inside sewer pipes of homes and the WSSC system.
· FOG can lead to costly and messy basement back-ups and sewer overflows; they’re bad for the environment and can drain your bank account.
· More than 40 percent of all sewer overflows nationwide are caused by grease.
Even if you run hot water after dumping grease down the drain, the grease will eventually cool and accumulate inside the pipes. Over a period of time, the build-up of hardened grease restricts the flow of wastewater and causes blockages that may result in expensive basement backups or overflowing manholes. The wastewater that overflows can get into creeks and streams that ultimately lead to the Chesapeake Bay, posing a health and environmental hazard.
This holiday season help WSSC spread the word. Pour cooled grease into a can (a soup can works great) and throw it in the trash! Email us at canthegrease@wsscwater.com and we’ll send you a rubber lid you can use to can your grease. You can also visit www.wsscwater.com/canthegrease to see videos and find more information on keeping our pipes free from harmful blockages.