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Fwd: Re: [GreenYes] restaurant oil and grease

>Date: Thu, 03 Oct 2002 15:12:35 -0700
>From: "Gabriella Uhlar-Heffner" <Gabriella.Uhlar-Heffner@ci.seattle.wa.us>
>To: <gary@garyliss.com>
>Subject: Re: [GreenYes] restaurant oil and grease
>
>The consultant study performed for King County and the City of Seattle
>4-5 years ago only looked at wastewater capacity in terms of space in
>existing digestors at sewage treatment plants - it did not look at
>whether increased food scraps to garbage grinders and disposals would
>increase the levels of BOD and suspended soils over the thresholds for
>the sewage treatment plant's discharge limitations.  It did not consider
>fats, oils and grease since restaurants can not put these items down the
>sewer system due to sewer pipe blockage problems. It rather looked at a
>broad economic question of whether it was cheaper from a regional
>prespective of allowing residents and commercial businesses to put food
>scraps down the drain or into the garbage or into a source-separated
>curbside collection program for composting...
>
> >>> Gary Liss <gary@garyliss.com> 10/03/02 10:40AM >>>
>Sharon,
>
>There are 3 groups that I know of that have looked at related issues in
>
>some depth: Seattle/King County Area, Half Moon Bay, and San Diego
>County.
>
>Key seems to be whether there is sufficient wastewater treatment
>capacity
>or not.  In Half Moon Bay, in the 1990s they banned commercial garbage
>
>disposal units while they had restricted capacity on their treatment
>plant.  I believe that treatment plant has now been expanded, and don't
>
>know if they lifted the commercial ban.
>
>In San Diego County, Rick Anthony did extensive analysis of these
>issues,
>in preparation for developing new sewer rates, charging by the
>concentration of loading on the sewer system.
>
>In King County/Seattle, they have plenty of wastewater treatment
>capacity.  They did extensive studies in the 1990s on this issue and
>decided it was OK for people to use garbage disposal units there.
>
>CONTACTS:
>Rick Anthony: 858-272-2905
>Half Moon Bay: George Irving, Montara Sanitary District could get you
>the
>right person.  George is at 650-728-3545 or <george@montara.com>
>Seattle: Jenny Bagby or Henry Friedman at (206) 733-9147 could get you
>the
>right person in King County; <jenny.bagby@ci.seattle.wa.us> or
><Henry.Friedman@Seattle.Gov>
>
>Gary
>
>At 07:59 AM 10/03/2002 -0700, Sharon_Gates@ci.long-beach.ca.us wrote:
>
> >The Long Beach Water Department has produced a brochure for restaurant
>
> >owners about BMPs for keeping fats, oils, and grease out of the
> >sewers.  Unfortunately, one of their recommendations is that
>restaurants
> >use disposable paper products instead of washable dishware.  I would
>like
> >to recommend a change to their brochure, but wonder if this issue of
> >"waste water vs. solid waste" has been addressed somewhere else.  It
>seems
> >that most agencies are either waste water or solid waste, and very few
>
> >deal with both.  I tried contacting the Sanitation Districts of Los
> >Angeles County (who do handle both solid waste and waste water) and
>the
> >gentleman with whom I spoke didn't seem to understand why recommending
>
> >disposables would be a problem.  His attitude seemed to be that since
>
> >there was landfill space, better to send stuff to the landfill than
>put it
> >into the sewer.  The gentleman e-mailed me factsheets that th! e
> >Sanitation Districts send out, and they go even further with
> >disposables.  The Sanitation Districts recommend the use of paper
>towels
> >so that grease doesn't get into the sewers from washing machine
> >wastewater!  It doesn't require much imagination to take this to its
> >logical conclusion -- single-use everything (clothing, equipment,
>cars,
> >buildings...), throw it all away.  Come to think of it, that's not a
>far
> >stretch for what we already have :-(.
> >
> >My instinct is to recommend that the Water Dept. just  remove any
> >reference to disposables.  It seems to me that following the other oil
>and
> >grease BMPs would keep grease out of the sewer without adding to the
>solid
> >waste stream.  Have other agencies addressed restaurant oil/grease
>while
> >also incorporating an understanding of solid waste reduction?  I would
>
> >like to be able to put my recommendation(s) in terms to which the
>Water
> >Department will be receptive.
> >
> >Thanks in advance for your help.
> >
> >Sharon Gates
> >Recycling Specialist
> >City of Long Beach, California
> >562/570-4694

Gary Liss
916-652-7850
Fax: 916-652-0485

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