Tagged with 'pretreatment'

Organic and “natural” products and methods enjoy a glowing reputation in the marketplace. They’re able to command higher prices and for many people are a preferred choice when there is a choice.

They’ve made inroads beyond food, too, to products such as apparel (made with organically grown cotton), cosmetics and a variety of products constructed from “sustainable” recycled materials.

It’s not surprising, then, that restaurants and other commercial kitchen operators are interested in biological methods of pretreating grease-laden kitchen effluent. Beyond the attraction of a biologically based treatment system, these methods also hold out the possibility of minimizing pumping and other maintenance required by mechanical separation systems.

But while enzymatic and bacterial treatment solutions are growing in popularity, many questions and challenges remain.

Before considering enzymatic or bacterial solutions, there are a number of factors you need to consider.

The damage that grease and other pollutants can inflict on the environment is well documented, but few cases illustrate this as well as Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island.

Narragansett Bay is a prime example of what untreated sewage can do to the environment. However, it’s also a great case study in how pretreatment can help turn around polluted waterways and help reverse the impact of pollution.

The problem began in the 18th century when Rhode Islanders would empty their raw sewage directly into their nearby rivers that flowed into the bay. By the 1970s, nearly 65 million gallons of untreated sewage was flowing into Rhode Island’s waters each day. Grease deposits the size of soccer balls were sometimes seen floating in the bay. The bay’s shellfish beds, which had created a booming industry, were closed.

A packed-to-the-gills restaurant during dinner rush doesn’t hold a candle to the hustle and bustle — both in and out of the kitchen — of a middle school cafeteria during the lunch hour.

While most restaurants have a leisurely dining room turnover, hundreds of students are cycled through the lunch line and sent out the door with full bellies every thirty minutes in a cafeteria setting. This presents a challenge not only for the front of the house cafeteria staff, but also requires a pretreatment plan that can go with the flow … literally.

School cafeterias feed hundreds — maybe even thousands — of children over a very short period of time. Sometimes, even twice a day. Every aspect of the operation, from the staff to the grease interceptor, needs to run like a well-oiled machine. One clog, one overflow or glitch could shut down the kitchen in an instant. 

But there are solutions.

The EPA estimates the total number miles of sewer lines snaking across the country to be about 1.2 million. Considering some of these lines are over 100 years old, local governments will spend billions of dollars modernizing failing wastewater systems over the next 10 to 20 years.

Because this aging infrastructure has survived decades of wear, tear and obstruction, decreasing its capability to withstand heavy demands, the probability of blockages and backups increases over time. And those blockages and backups are very likely to lead to the release of pollutants.

Not only do those pollutants threaten public health, they can also lead to fines and other enforcement actions from state and federal agencies. But there are things that regulators and waste water system users can do to reduce the burden on aging treatment systems, decrease costs and increase efficiencies.

Noncompliance with pretreatment regulations creates serious problems, both for the violator and for the wastewater system operator.

While ordinances, fines and consistent enforcement are essential, they are not sufficient for effective pretreatment. After all, the goal of a pretreatment program is to maintain water quality, reduce the load on water treatment plants and minimize sewer system maintenance costs.

The best way to achieve those goals is to prevent pretreatment ordinance violations in the first place.

Here are five key tools that every effective pretreatment program should have. Combined, these elements can reduce the enforcement burden while also maintaining a cleaner, more efficient wastewater treatment system.

You always score a solid "A" during health department inspections.

You make sure your fire extinguishers and other safety gear is regularly inspected.

And if something goes wrong with a piece of equipment, you immediately call a service technician and get it fixed.

While you may think you’re doing everything you could, and everything you should, to keep your commercial kitchen in compliance with government regulations, there are still a few surprises that could trip you up.

When Michelle Aumiller was a kid growing up in Oklahoma, she loved jumping in mud puddles.

Today, though, in her role as a municipal Industrial Waste Monitor, she knows that sanitary sewer overflows can turn a child’s mud puddle into a serious health hazard.

“By protecting our sewer lines and waste treatment plants from FOG (fats, oil and grease) and other contaminants,” Aumiller says, “we keep waste water from contaminating the environment and mud puddles – for our children and grandchildren.”

Six years ago, when Aumiller took on the position of Industrial Waste Monitor for Midwest City, Oklahoma, the municipality was experiencing serious problems with Sanitary Sewer Overflows (SSO).

“The city was under a Consent Order by the state Department of Environmental Quality and was facing large fines for the overflows,” according to Aumiller. “The first thing I did was write a letter that the sewer line crew distributed to homes, restaurants and businesses -- explaining the problem that we were having with FOG and other clogging materials and providing information on best practices to help solve the problem.”