WSSC Water is urging customers to avoid pouring grease down the drain during Thanksgiving, noting that the day after the holiday often brings a spike in costly sewer blockages known as “Brown Friday.”
The utility says hardened grease is a major cause of sewer overflows and advises residents to collect, cool, and throw away grease to prevent backups and environmental harm.
Per WSSC: “While shoppers everywhere gear up for Black Friday, plumbers prepare for something far less glamorous: 💩 Brown Friday! The day after Thanksgiving is notorious for clogged pipes and messy, not to mention expensive, sewer backups. WSSC Water strongly encourages customer to CAN THE GREASE and you can spend Black Friday shopping, not mopping!
If it’s greasy, gooey, gloppy, drippy, or suspiciously shiny… CAN IT. Whether turkey drippings and gravy during the holidays or everyday grease like bacon fat, the rule stays the same:
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CAN IT. |
COOL IT. |
TOSS IT. |
Grease accumulates and hardens inside sewer pipes – narrowing the space where the wastewater flows. Over time, a full blockage will occur, causing messy and costly sewage backups in homes/businesses or overflowing manholes. When sewage spills from manholes, it becomes an environmental hazard, polluting creeks, streams and, ultimately, the Chesapeake Bay.
Grease is a factor in nearly one-third (32 percent) of all sewer overflows in the WSSC Water wastewater collection system.
