WSSC Water Offers Tips to Avoid a Brown Friday!
Can The Grease: Prevent Sewer Backups and Plumber Visits the Day After Thanksgiving
99 Percent of Grease-related Pipe Blockages Come From Residential Neighborhoods
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Laurel, Md. – November 23, 2021 – The day after Thanksgiving may be a big boon for retailers, but it’s one of the busiest days for plumbers, too. Black Friday has turned into Brown Friday due to plumbing emergencies caused by clogged sewage lines in homes. Don’t make Brown Friday part of your Thanksgiving holiday ritual. WSSC Water has the perfect recipe to help keep raw sewage, and plumbers, from entering your home: Can the Grease!
If you pour grease or food scraps, poultry skin, dressing or vegetable peels down the drain, it all will harden and gel together, clogging your sewer pipes and creating a nasty and expensive sewage backup in your home! Always throw food scraps in the trash and follow these easy steps to take care of the leftover grease:
- CAN IT: pour grease into an empty soup can;
- COOL IT: put the can in the freezer or refrigerator until it hardens (WSSC Water will send customers a special lid that fits most cans); and
- TOSS IT: once the can is full, throw it in the trash (save the lid for next time).
About 75 percent of all sewer overflows in WSSC Water’s system are due to blockages created by grease! And 99 percent of those can be traced back to residential homes, townhomes and apartment buildings.
WSSC Water’s Fats, Oils and Grease inspection program, targeted at restaurants to ensure proper disposal, has been a huge success in preventing grease from entering the sewer system. However, more grease-related overflows and basement backups occur in residential neighborhoods.
Think pouring water down the drain will help prevent a blockage? Think again! The water may push the grease further inside the pipe, but, eventually, the grease will harden, causing a sewage overflow inside a home or from a manhole – resulting in an environmental hazard with wastewater spilling into creeks, streams and, ultimately, the Chesapeake Bay.
WSSC Water customers can get more information, including a free Can the Grease lid, by visiting www.wsscwater.com/canthegrease.
Media Note: B-roll of grease inside pipes is available for download here. WSSC Water personnel are also available for interviews.
WSSC Water is the proud provider of safe, seamless and satisfying water services, making the essential possible every day for our neighbors in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties. We work to deliver our best because it’s what our customers expect and deserve.