Yorba Linda sewer report focuses on fats, oils, grease and prevention of overflows to streets

With grand openings of several eating establishments, a Regal movie theater, a Bristol Farms specialty food store and other businesses in the Yorba Linda Town Center fast approaching, a new report related to the prevention of sewer overflows merits attention.

The report, presented recently to directors of the Yorba Linda Water District, outlines the agency's programs regarding fats, oils and grease, commonly termed FOG, with a focus on restaurants and food outlets.

The water district is responsible for maintaining sewers throughout most of its service areas, although some Yorba Linda homes still utilize septic tanks. Sewers in Yorba Linda's mid-city area served by the Golden State Water Company also are maintained by the district.

The FOG program is designed to prevent buildup of the materials that clog lines and “result in sewer flows in streets, gutters and other surface areas,” according to the report prepared by Steve Conklin, the district's engineering manager.

Conklin noted that the district is required to report overflows to the state's Water Resource Control Board, which can issue fines, although “there have been very few sewer overflows and no fines assessed,” due to the district's “aggressive and on-going mitigation program.”

One aspect of the mitigation program is the development of a spreadsheet that identifies 108 “enhanced maintenance areas” in sewer lines throughout the district's service area that need more frequent clean-outs, either monthly or quarterly.

The areas need special attention due to flat slopes, sewer segments with slopes that don't maintain adequate downflow velocity; siphons, downward segments that move up again to avoid obstacles; and grit (coffee grounds, eggshells, other debris) and solid grease buildup.

Of the 108 identified problem areas, 67 reasons are noted on the spreadsheet, 40 due to restaurants and 27 for other causes, mainly residential, although lines near a high school, retirement home and oil change facility are listed. Thirty-four lines have two or more problems.

Some of the problems are due to restaurants not having gravity grease interceptors, since they only have been required by a FOG control program adopted in 2010. And some local shopping centers have private sewer systems that are not regularly maintained by owners/management.

New Town Center tenants will be visited by a district representative who will inspect the kitchen and grease retention facilities and provide a copy of an 87-page FOG control binder describing training, maintenance and compliance inspections, including the district's 2004 FOG ordinance.

Among the report's recommendations for future action is for directors to establish a “grease disposal mitigation fee” for restaurants without grease control devises that contribute to the fats, oils and grease hotspots to recover the costs of staff time and materials to clear out the problem areas.