Keep Sewers Fat-Free This Holiday Season

Baykeeper and East Bay Municipal Utility District urge residents
not to put cooking oil and grease down the sink

The holidays are just around the corner, and many Bay Area residents are gearing up for special meals – with buttery foods, turkeys and homemade gravy.  Food-focused holidays may challenge not only waistlines but, surprisingly, your sewer line. 

If you wash even small amounts of grease and greasy scraps down the drain, you may end up with sewage backing up into your house or your street.  “It’s just not something you want to have to deal with when your family is visiting for the holidays. The great thing is that sewage backups caused by grease are easily prevented,“ says Deb Self, executive director for Baykeeper.  Fats, oil and grease washed down the drain stick to the inside of sewer lines, building up over time into a clog. Sewage can back up into homes or streets and storm drains, which empty into local creeks and San Francisco Bay. 

“East Bay Municipal Utility District and Baykeeper are working together to protect creeks and the Bay – not to mention your holiday party – from untreated sewage,” says Dave Williams, Director of Wastewater at EBMUD. Baykeeper and EBMUD urge residents to take the following steps:

• Pour cooled fats, oils and grease into a can with a lid or mix it with an absorbent material such as cat litter and dispose of in the garbage.
• Wipe down greasy pots, pans, or dishes with a paper towel. Dispose of paper towel into your kitchen scrap recycling or the garbage.
• Don’t use hot water, soap and the garbage disposal to wash grease down the drain. Water cools on its journey through the pipes and the grease hardens into clogs further down the pipe.
• Drop off large amounts of cooking oil – like that used in turkey fryers - for recycling at locations listed below.

Large amounts of home cooking oil can be disposed of for free at recycling locations throughout the East Bay.  The drop-off program, now beginning its third year, has collected more than 1,500 gallons of used cooking oil. Recycling sites include:

EBMUD Wastewater Treatment Plant: 2020 Wake Avenue, Oakland CA. Go to the guard station for directions to the self-service receptacle. Open seven days a week for all EBMUD residential customers.

West County Integrated Waste Management Authority: 101 Pittsburg, Richmond. Open Thursday and Friday, and the first Saturday of the month, 9 a.m. – 4 p.m., closed for lunch 12 – 12:30 p.m.

Central Contra Costa Household Hazardous Waste Facility: 4797 Imhoff Place, Martinez, CA.  Open Tuesday – Saturday, 9 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Target, Costco, Home Depot and Whole Foods stores in the East Bay are helping advertise the drop-off locations to their customers.