Posted on 11/28/2004 12:33:02 AM PST by BurbankKarl
Carrot peels. Spud skins. And a sludge of turkey drippings.
Such holiday leavings each year end up in the kitchen sink from Thanksgiving through Christmas, clogging the nation's largest sewer, Los Angeles sewer officials say.
"It's wild," said Kent Carlson, a wastewater collection supervisor for the Bureau of Sanitation. "Beginning with Thanksgiving, everyone gets their cholesterol levels up in the season of family and big eating, with comfort food, gravy and taters.
"It's like our arteries -- we start having problems."
The Bureau of Sanitation works two shifts daily, seven days a week, to keep 6,500 miles of sewer lines clean of roots, as well as restaurant and residential waste, by scouring up to 70,000 feet of pipe.
But each Thanksgiving, homeowners toss vats of grease down the sink, followed by tons of starchy trimmings into their garbage disposals.
The result, say wastewater engineers, is that plugged sewers rise from roughly seven lines a month to 10 during the holidays.
"We do see more blockages in the system, beginning with the Thanksgiving holiday," said Barry Berggren, division manager for the city's wastewater collection system. "It starts from the grease and food preparation materials that go down the garbage disposal.
"People are in a hurry."
Roots are the main culprit, followed by grease that tends to congeal in the cool of autumn. Add a mass of Thanksgiving potato peelings, carrot tops and leftover yams, and 8-inch and 10-inch sewer lines can plug up faster than a greasy sink trap.
Sewer workers then trot out mondo rooters with giant blades, or a high-pressure water truck that can blow out debris at 60 gallons a minute. <> For area plumbers, Thanksgiving also marks the beginning of the sewer-snake season, as plumbers fan out across Los Angeles to unclog slow-running drains stuffed with thousands of extra holiday calories and toilet flushes.
"You get this thickened mass, it begins to clog up, cling to the sides of the (sewer) pipe; grease sticks to grease and begins to be calcified," Carlson said.
"It rolls right into Thanksgiving and right through Christmas."
SWAK!
~Dimly remembered episode from 40 years ago.
Young man. Go to your room.
Ha ha! I was wondering what that first message meant. :) I had to look up your ID and try and figure out if you were a female who knew who I was or something. Then I came back and saw your reply to yourself with the "Sewer Workers Are King" acronym and I feel better. :)
Ooooh. Three more than usual.
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