CANBERRA’S water provider (and remover) is asking the public to stop pouring oil and grease down the drain for fear of what it does to their pipes.
ACTEW Water want you to know that if you pour oils and grease directly down your kitchen sink, or don’t scrape greasy remnants from plates, pots and pans, then you’re taking a chance with fats and it’s possible your waste pipes and sewers will eventually experience messy blockages.
“Oils and grease may look easy to dispose of in liquid form but once they hit a cold sewer, they quickly solidify, sticking to the walls of these narrow pipes and gradually clogging them up,” a spokesperson said.
“It’s important to remember that most of our pipes, and particularly those running from your home to the main sewer, are often only a few inches wide. If they become blocked, then human waste can quickly back up into your street, garden and even your home.
“Each year ACTEW Water engineers clean around 300 kilometres of sewers across the capital, that’s enough pipes to stretch from Canberra to Sydney. By proactively targeting likely blockage sites in the network, we have managed to reduce sewer blockages by 60% over the last 5 year regulatory period, far exceeding our original target of 25%.
“Our teams actively target hotspots around the city, identifying sewer chokes, blockages, and areas where roots may have infiltrated the network. We also specifically target the sewer infrastructure around restaurants and takeaways where fats and grease may build up.
“ACTEW Water continues to invest every year to improve the sewer network and protect the natural environment of our bush capital and we need our customers to support us by taking care in what they pour down their sinks and put into their dishwashers.
“Customers should allow fats and grease to cool before they scrape plates, pots and pans. Once cooled these fats can be collected and correctly disposed of with household rubbish.”
It may be worth considering what these fats are doing to our arteries if they can block sewage pipes.
[Photo by Joe Strupek attribution licence]
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