When washing dishes, cleaning the sauce pan or draining the grease from cooking that bacon, you add FOG to your sewer service and to the Utility’s sanitary sewer system.  It can be found in many of the foods we eat, especially meats, sauces, salad dressings, cookies, cake icings, ketchup, mayonnaise and other items.

FOG is a community issue.

• Sewage can back up into homes, businesses and/or your neighborhood.
• Cleanup is unpleasant and costly.
• Sewage backups create the potential for contact with disease causing micro-organisms.
• Overflows increase costs to maintain and operate the sanitary sewer system you rely on.

Fats, oils and grease are the major factor in most of the sanitary sewer overflows that occur in homes and businesses; and it is a major health hazard.

When fats, oils and grease are dissolved in hot and/or soapy water and washed down the drain, the FOG begins to cool and solidify. The greasy mixture tends to stick to the walls of the drain pipe. The mixture may or may not make it out of your drains and if it does, the sticky mess adds to a growing problem around the country. “Out of sight, out of mind” has become the norm.

As the grease solidifies in the sewer collection system, it creates mats on the sides of pipes; debris begins to lodge in the mats until it blocks off the sewer main. If water can’t flow down the sewer main, the result can be an overflow of sewage into the environment and/or backup into the homes, restaurants and businesses. This can be very costly to the home owner and the Utility.

You Can Help

• NEVER pour grease down the drains or in the toilets. 
• SCRAPE your plates and wipe your pots and pans before washing. 
• DISPOSE of fats, oils, and grease into a container. Take large containers to the landfill for proper disposal. 
• COMMUNICATE with your family and friends about the problems of pouring grease down their sink drains and the problems that occur in their sanitary sewer system.

For more information:

AWWU Customer Service - 564-2700 or  CustomerService@awwu.biz