Please DO NOT flush items other than sanitary waste into the sewer, Objects such as plastics. towels, wood, or metal can cause obstructions in your service line and in the sewer main.  GREASE is the main cause of sewer back-ups. DO NOT dispose of grease or any kind of oil down any drain in your home. This material is best disposed of by sealing it in a container dropping it off at one of our many grease and cooking oil recycle stations.

Disposing of Used Cooking Oil

Used oil should always be disposed of properly. DO NOT POUR THE COOKING OIL DOWN THE DRAIN. Even if the oil is poured slowly into the drain with hot water, this practice will eventually cause problems with your plumbing and the City’s sewer system as a whole. Once the oil has cooled, it can be poured into a free Daphne Utilities recycling jug (or other container you may have) and dropped off at any of our recycling centers around the City. Used cooking oil is also biodegradable so it can be composted with other food scraps.

 

Food Service Facilities

Sanitary Sewer Pretreatment Program

Daphne Utilities is committed to protecting our natural resources and providing the highest quality utility services to the Daphne Community. In pursuit of that commitment, we continuously seek to improve our ability to protect the environment from damaging sewer spills.

One of the main causes of sewer spills are overflows from the sanitary sewer system due to clogs in the sewer piping system from cooking oil and grease. This material solidifies in the sewer lines and restricts flow, sometimes completely. During heavy rainstorms, storm water runoff can force untreated sewage out of the collection system into our watershed and ultimately into the Bay. In most cases, these overflows could have been prevented. This is where we need your help!

Oil and grease enters our collection system most commonly through users pouring used oil down a drain or during the cleaning operations at food service facilities. This not only clogs our sewer lines but can cause sewer to backup into your fixtures and facilities as well. The impact upon your business in this event could be devastating and costly. We want your business to be successful and are taking positive steps to protect you from this problem.

To reduce the oil and grease contamination on our sanitary sewer system:

We have acquired a state-of-the-art vacuum and TV truck which we use to constantly monitor and maintain our collection system.

We have implemented the “Cease the Grease” program for homeowners, which provides for convenient recycling of used cooking oil and grease.

We have adopted the Sanitary Sewer Pre-Treatment Ordinance for food service facilities and other commercial customers.

While we have implemented the above measures, we still need you, the Daphne Community, to work diligently to prevent oil and grease from entering the wastewater system in the first place. The use of “Best Management Practices” helps ensure that your facility is properly disposing of oils and greases. We will also have our expert in grease ordinance compliance visit you soon to help answer any questions you have on this subject. Look for public meetings on this also very soon. Your success as an Eastern Shore business and a Daphne Utilities customer is important to us and we want to provide you the opportunity to learn how best you can gain compliance on this new ordinance.

We are your “hometown utility” and we are dedicated to providing the highest quality water, sewer, and natural gas service and to protecting our customers, environment, and our hometown. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call us!

Download the Sanitary Sewer Pre-Treatment Ordinance here.