I’d like to talk about something disgusting this week … fatbergs.
I had never heard the word ‘fatberg’ before this past weekend, when Town of Highlands Highway Superintendent Pat Patterson sent me a link to a CBS News video about New York City’s sewage problems. City officials are waging a war against two things: cooking grease poured down the kitchen sink and ‘flushable’ wipes flushed down the toilet. When these two things combine underground in sewage pipes, they create the phenomenon known as a fatberg — basically an iceberg created out of fat.
Fatbergs are a recently new, and modern, problem; the term was first coined in England.
“A fatberg is a congealed mass in a sewer system formed by the combination of non-biodegradable solid matter, such as wet wipes, and congealed grease or cooking fat. Fatbergs became a problem in the 2010s in England, because of ageing Victorian sewers and the rise in usage of disposable cloths.”
So, the NYC campaign slogan is ‘Trash it, don’t Flush it’, and more and more municipalities are jumping on the bandwagon. When Pat sent me the link, attached was a comment from another area highway superintendent who said they’d recently dealt with a large fatberg.
You should not be flushing diapers/make-up, baby, flushable or cleaning wipes/tampons or sanitary pads/condoms. Put all of that in the garbage. Interestingly, you should also never flush dental floss … it can tangle up with other items and clog the mechanisms at the sewer treatment plants.
Basically, a city official who commented on the story in the video clip I saw said “only the four Ps should go down the toilet: poop, pee, paper and puke.” (Please remember that I apologized in advance for the grossness of this story in the headline!)
You should also not be pouring grease down your sink; pour it into a sealable container and put it in your regular garbage can.
It’s an expensive problem to deal with for municipalities — which equates to expensive for you, in your taxes and sewer bills — and, should you develop a ‘mini-fatberg’ in the sewer pipes in or under your home, you could be looking at your own big bills.
Google it. The images are pretty gross — they’ve actually measured the fatbergs they’ve pulled from sewer lines, and some have been over 200 feet long! Then, please be very careful what you flush and wash down the sink.
On to something nicer to write about … and do I apologize for the fact that these two polar opposite topics are sharing the same column this week, but KUDOS to the organizers of this year’s St. Patrick’s Parade in Highland Falls. It was so fun! I love how it has grown every one of its four years in existence, and was thrilled to see a lot of people out taking in the sights. It’s always a great day when the community can come together for something fun and even a little bit frivolous … with all the problems in the world, we all need to be able to step out and enjoy the happy parts of life!
