This grease control policy has been developed in order to insure an effective means of regulating the collection of fats, oils, and grease (referred to as grease). The intent is to provide a comprehensive policy for the town personnel regarding the appropriate means of collection, transportation, and disposal and to provide information to persons who are subject to this policy.
(A) Purpose. The purpose of this grease control policy is to provide for the regulation of the collection and transportation of non-hazardous fats, oils, and grease of animal or vegetable origin retained in commercial grease traps in order to eliminate the deleterious impact of grease on the wastewater collection and treatment facilities. Ultimately, the chances of sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs) are lessened, thus reducing the chances of impact to the environment and/or human health. This policy also contains guidelines on proper sizing of grease traps, permitting, maintenance, inspection, reporting, and record keeping.
(B) Duties. The Director of Public Utilities will enforce compliance with permits and regulations. The Director is also responsible for implementing these grease control requirements. The Director shall be responsible for all administrative actions such as inspections, plan review, and records maintenance.
(C) Applicability. Upon the effective date of this revised sewer use ordinance, new users including restaurants, cafeterias, hospitals, rest homes, butchering facilities, churches, and school kitchen operations shall provide approved grease traps as required by the Director of Public Utilities for the removal of grease. Additionally, any existing automobile repair facility or machining shop with floor drains which are located in the same building near a source of petroleum products, solvents, parts washing stations, antifreeze storage, or any other chemical use or storage area and are connected to the town's sewer system shall plug each floor drain so as not to be connected with the town's sewer system. Users with an existing grease trap(s) will be allowed to continue using the trap; however, the following guidelines regarding maintenance, cleaning, etc. shall apply. Current applicable users (as earlier defined in this section) with no grease trap in place will be required to install at a minimum an under-sink grease trap within one year of the effective date of this document. Furthermore, future users as defined in this section shall also install an approved grease trap before their establishment becomes operable except that of bakeries and other non-“eat-in” type facility in which food is served and eaten on the premises. New non-“eat-in” facilities shall be required to install an under-sink type grease trap in which grease is collected, cleaned and disposed of by the user.
(D) Generator requirements. Persons required to install grease traps shall submit to the Director of Public Utilities a plan of the proposed grease trap indicating the location of the building drain. Approval to discharge shall be obtained by the Director. Grease traps for food service establishments shall be based on a minimum capacity of 20 gallons per seat (or bed, in the case of hospitals, rest homes, or other care facilities) except that no grease trap shall be smaller than 1,000 gallons unless approved by the Pretreatment manager. No single chamber of a grease trap shall exceed 3,000 gallons in capacity, and food service establishments requiring traps exceeding 3,000 gallons shall install multiple units in parallel to comply with these requirements. Upon obtaining prior approval from the Pretreatment Manager, the generator may use approved EPA or SCDHEC methodology for sizing grease traps in lieu of the above criteria. As indicated above, establishments requiring traps exceeding 3,000 gallons shall install multiple units. Users that meet the definition of SIGNIFICANT INDUSTRIAL USER shall comply with the applicable provisions of the sewer use and pretreatment regulation.
(E) Routine maintenance. All grease traps shall be purchased, installed, and maintained at the user' s expense. Maintenance shall include the sufficient removal of all contents including floating materials, wastewater, slugs, and solids at a frequency of once every six months or more frequently, if needed, to assure proper operation of the grease trap. Before cleaning, the owner shall contact the Director of Public Utilities to notify him when the cleaning contractor is scheduled to clean the grease trap. This ensures an opportunity for the Director of Public Utilities, or another representative from the town, to observe and evaluate the user's cleaning schedule. The town reserves the right to inspect grease traps during cleaning and requiring more frequent cleaning if the grease trap is suspected to be allowing the discharge of grease into the sewer system. During cleaning, the entire contents of the grease trap shall be removed. Upon written request from the generator, the Director of Public Utilities may allow a less frequent schedule of maintenance when assurance of proper operation of the grease trap can be demonstrated. Decanting or discharging any of the contents removed grease trap back into the same grease trap or into any other grease trap is prohibited unless the grease portion of the grease trap contents can be separated and visually observed by the pumping contractor to have been separated and a high degree of reliability that no grease is re-entering the grease trap is achieved.
(F) Substitutions prohibited. The use of any biological or chemical additives as a substitute for the use of grease traps or the proper maintenance of grease traps is prohibited. Chemical additives, such as solvents, are strictly prohibited from use in all cases. However, the use of biological additives as a supplement to maintenance may be authorized by the Director of Public Utilities. Proper documentation of approval shall be obtained by the user in writing from the Director.
(G) Transporter requirements. Transporters shall maintain a current license from the SCDHEC Division of Onsite Wastewater Systems to maintain grease traps and haul grease waste. Transporters shall use approved disposal sites and methods specified in the license. The city will not accept grease trap waste, therefore, it is the transporter's responsibility to use appropriate disposal sites for grease trap wastes. The town reserves the right to conduct inspections of grease traps during the cleaning process and to communicate with transporter concerning time of cleaning, condition of the grease trap, etc. the owner of the grease trap shall be required to document grease trap' cleaning in a log-book maintained at the owner's facility which includes date of pumping, volume pumped, signature of the licensed transporter and the treatment facility to which the grease waste will be taken.
(H) Design specifications. Infrequently used floor drains whose traps have the tendency to “dry out” and produce odor shall not be connected to a grease trap. Showers, toilets, washing machines, bath tubs, or sinks which are used only for vegetable washing, shall not be connected to a grease trap. The vent line from the sample port riser on the, interceptor outlet line shall be connected to the building waste vent piping.
(Ord. 2019-02, passed 7-22-2019)