Foodies, Marra discuss grease traps

by Joshua Maloni
Lewiston Porter Sentinel, March 15, 2008

Deputy Mayor Mike Marra met with a handful of Center Street food establishment owners on Monday to explain the need for grease traps. He was joined by Village of Lewiston Engineer Emeritus Richard San Giacomo; Tim Lockhart, director of the Lewiston Water Pollution Control Center; and Bryan Meigs, superintendent of the Department of Public Works.

The village is poised to adopt a law that would require any business serving food to install and maintain a grease trap. A yearly permit would be required – at no cost to the establishment – as would a record of maintenance. Marra called the village’s strategy an “aggressive approach” to a “significant problem.”

Lockhart said the Town of Lewiston, which governs the village on this matter, allows 25 milligrams per liter of “F.O.G.,” or fats, oils and grease deposits. In other words, Lockhart said no more than the equivalent of three shot glasses of grease should be sent to the sanitary sewer with every 1,500-2,000 gallons on water flushed.

That has not been the case thus far, and the village has removed what Meigs called basketball-sized grease balls from the wet well on Water Street.

San Giacomo said the new law is not designed to stifle industry – “We’re not here to hurt the restaurants,” he said – but rather to protect the village. Costs to repair grease problems in the sewer system can cost as much as $6,000. That money, coupled with $80,000 recently spent to install new pumps, is generated from residential water taxes.

“We can’t afford to put in $80,000 worth of pumps every five years,” San Giacomo said.