Grease Traps

Did You Know?


According to TCEQ:

  • Restaurants, cafeterias, and fast-food establishments spend tens of thousands of dollars on plumbing emergencies each year to deal with grease blockages and pump out grease traps and interceptors. Some cities also charge businesses for the repair of sewer pipes and spill cleanup if they can attribute the blockage to a particular business.
  • Communities spend billions of dollars every year unplugging or replacing grease-blocked pipes, repairing pump stations, and cleaning up costly and illegal wastewater spills. 
  • Fats, oils, and grease (FOG) comes from meat fats in food scraps, cooking oil, shortening, lard, butter and margarine, gravy, and food products such as mayonnaise, salad dressings, and sour cream. 
    • FOG poured down kitchen drains accumulates inside sewer pipes. As the FOG builds up, it restricts the flow in the pipe and can cause untreated wastewater to back up into homes and businesses, resulting in high costs for cleanup and restoration. 
    • Manholes can overflow into parks, yards, streets, and storm drains, allowing FOG to contaminate local waters, including drinking water. Exposure to untreated wastewater is a public-health hazard.
    • FOG discharged into septic systems and drain fields can cause malfunctions, resulting in more frequent tank pump-outs and other expenses.
Inground GT
Under sink GT

In the fall of 2003, the City Council of the City of Wichita Falls passed City Ordinance 62-2004 requiring all food service establishments, food serving facilities, and certain other facilities to install and maintain Grease Traps or Grease Interceptors to alleviate the growing problem of grease blockage caused sewer overflow. Health Inspectors monitor grease traps in the city of Wichita Falls annually during permit inspections to assure they adhere to the ordinance:

Local Ordinance