The pandemic is pushing city governments and public health departments across the country to adopt a pretreatment mindset to diagnose the welfare of local populations. Robust sewer systems are crucial to this new approach. Biobot Analytics has been a big catalyst for the change. The Boston-based epidemiology research company launched in 2017 to study and analyze…
A grease interceptor is an important investment in your business and the environment. You should be able to count on it to do the job long-term, without risking damage to your community’s wastewater system and your bottom line. The tests to meet North American and European grease interceptor standards give you that peace of mind….
As if running a business isn’t challenging enough in the current economic climate, an invisible fallout from the pandemic is lurking in the pipes beneath hotels and restaurants. And it really stinks. That offensive rotten-egg smell signals the presence of hydrogen sulfide creeping up from the grease interceptor into your business. During the pandemic, we’ve…
In my 36 years working in the Pretreatment field, I’ve heard one question more frequently than any other: “How do I know when to service a grease separator?” Everyone from pretreatment coordinators and restaurant owners to plumbers and site designers asks it, and we’re never surprised. The entire pretreatment FOG management system depends on grease…
I’ve had to change my understanding of many long-held beliefs. Sometimes, I need to be publicly embarrassed to shake myself free of an assumption. That happened 30 years ago when I was visiting the New Hampshire State Environmental Health Department. Officials there asked me how long it takes a 1,000-gallon grease separator to drain a 50-gallon…
Control Can Be Elusive in Pretreatment’s Three-Legged Stool of grease management and compliance. In the late 1980s, The Narragansett Bay Commission (NBC) provided a great example of how to maximize control when it carried out one of the most effective Pretreatment programs I’ve seen in my career. It had to implement an audacious pretreatment program…
Best Management Practices 101 Why Well Implemented BMPs = Low Effluent Numbers and Happier FSEs On a long flight about three decades ago, I sat beside a co-founder of a regional pest control company specializing in food service establishments. “We find kitchens with no food debris or water on the floor do not have insects…
Danger Worsened by Pandemic Shutdowns Grease interceptors are breeding grounds for deadly hydrogen sulfide gas. Dormant grease interceptors significantly elevate the danger risk. Here are the details. Long periods of inactivity hurt seals, fuel systems, and moving parts of most mechanical systems. That’s why many automobiles don’t like it. Gas-powered lawn mowers and string trimmers…
Did you know the North American and European testing standards for certifying grease separators have nothing in common literally? One is predominately a performance standard, a batch flow test simulating kitchen sink discharge. The other is mostly a design standard, a continuous flow test simulating floor drains receiving oily water flows. The differences speak to…
Sep 10, 2020 In September, health officials in a Canadian town just outside Vancouver scrambled to explain a rare cluster of Legionnaires’ disease cases in its business district. The problem wasn’t as much a case of why it happened as much as where. They knew why. Like most cities and towns around the world, New…
