The Town of Banff is in a bit of a stink over the amount of grease, oils, fats and other household items being flushed down toilets, sinks and drains.
The municipality is set to re-launch a public awareness campaign about the dangers of flushing the wrong items, which can solidify pipes, clog sewer lines and cause costly sewage backups in homes and businesses.
Officials say they have been forced to regularly vacuum and flush out the lift station by the new pedestrian bridge to make sure the sanitary waste system does not get blocked.
Diana Waltmann, the Town’s communications manager, said there are huge amounts of grease in the sewer system, matting together with rags and wipes and other inappropriate materials.
“It is a floating mat of grease and rags entering the lift station, which interferes with the pump control equipment in the lift station… some mats are to two feet thick,” said Waltmann.
“This isn’t a new problem but we’re now capturing it at that lift station, so that it doesn’t flow over the river and downstream and potentially clog the pipes either downstream or at the wastewater treatment plant.”
Banff experienced two significant sewer backups last year.
A blocked pipe on the main sewage line connecting the Rimrock Resort Hotel, Banff Gondola and Parks Canada’s Upper Hot Springs to the treatment plant forced raw sewage out through a manhole cover in Banff.
The second leak was detected mid-August last year more than a kilometre downslope of the Rimrock Resort Hotel, causing Parks Canada to close a popular trail south of the hotel.
Crews worked for nine hours to unclog the pipe, which was stuck with rags, wipes and other cloth materials, and clean up of the area continued in the days following. It was the second sewage leak on the line that year.
Another problem area is at the corner of Caribou Street and Bear Street, where there are several restaurants. In addition, football-sized blobs of grease have been found floating in the wastewater treatment plant in recent years.
Waltmann said the Town of Banff has been inspecting commercial businesses, such as restaurants and garages, to check they have appropriate grease traps in place. Businesses are required to have grease traps.
“We’ve found a number of establishments haven’t been disposing of grease appropriately and we will be following up this fall and winter with more inspections,” she said.
The education is not just targeted at the business community, but at residents too.
“People have to stop throwing the wrong things into the sewer system,” said Waltmann.
“We’ve found baby wipes, rags, dinner napkins and it all mats together and does not go away. Then it backs up because there’s nowhere for it to go, except out into people’s businesses or houses.”
The Town of Banff asks people to keep the following items out of sinks, drains and toilets.
• Fats: butter, margarine, shortening etc;
• Oils: salad dressings, cooking oils, including deep frying, olive oil, sauces, lard and marinades;
• Grease: chicken, hamburger, bacon etc;
• Food: leftover grains, meat, vegetables etc:
The municipality also provides the following tips for disposal of fats, oils and grease.
• Scrape dishes before washing;
• Use a paper towel to wipe down cooking utensils and cookware before washing. Toss paper towels into the garbage or food-recycling bin;
• Pour fats, oils and grease liquid into a container, such as a tin can or milk carton and put in the freezer. After it freezes, dispose of it into the garbage. It is not recyclable.
• Use food recycling bins to dispose of other foods.
