Grease Separators: Plumbing Codes and Pretreatment Requirements - Can They Be Reconciled?
Enforced pretreatment ordinances are affecting the most commonly used pretreatment device - the grease separator.
Municipal sewer districts for many years would not enforce pretreatment ordinances in commercial kitchen applications, such as fast food franchises, full-menu restaurants and cafeterias. They instead stood on the sidelines and allowed plumbing inspection departments to interpret sewer-use regulations. But times are changing, and manpower has increased, resulting in the strict enforcement that industrial users have experienced for years. This will have an effect on the most commonly used pretreatment device in such applications, the grease separator, which includes outside grease traps/interceptors, inside manual interceptors and automatic grease removal devices.
While an undersized separator may adequately meet the local plumbing authority guidelines, it will not usually meet the pretreatment requirements if closely enforced. Increasingly stringent environmental regulations require that fat, oil, grease and suspended solids be reduced in the effluent prior to discharge. However, plumbing code authorities require the food grinder, and now even the dishwasher, to bypass the grease collection system and discharge directly to the sewer. There are simple techniques and equipment available to remedy this.