18 North Shore Towers Courier n June 2016 Roundtable discussion targets one of the greatest problems facing the world today is the Grease Word Story and photos by Stephen Vratos Did you know that 62% of all flooding is caused by grease and more than $3 million is spent annually on its removal from our sewer systems? These were just a couple of the eye-opening facts presented to North Shore Towers residents Tuesday evening, May 10, in Towers on the Green by members of New York City’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). The roundtable discussion on the hazards of improper grease removal, its effects and what can be done to combat it, was hosted by NST’s Political Action Committee (PAC). Joining NST Board Member and PAC Chair Felice Hannah were Director Charles Sturcken, Deputy Director Bruce MacDonald and Assistant Director Eva Lynch from the DEP’s Bureau of Public Affairs and Communications. Director Sturcken headed the slide presentation. In short, grease/cooking oils should never be dumped down the drain, but rather collected, allowed to cool and put out with the garbage or recycled. Grease released into a sewer system collects and builds upon the inner linings of the pipes, resulting in massive deposits, which impede water floor and cause blockages and flooding, much like the effect of bad cholesterol on the arteries of a human body. Grease deposits become as hard and rock and are tremendously difficult to remove, by using highpowered water jets and sometimes, in extreme cases, grease-eating, but bio-friendly, bacteria. Contrary to the popular myth, hot water does not help to diffuse grease/cooking oils, but rather serves to facilitate their sticking and accumulating in drainage pipes. One such deposit as big as a bus was discovered last year in London and their buses are of the double-decker variety! And unbeknownst to many, vegetable oil can be stored in the refrigerator for reuse in cooking or to make soap. Remarkably, the importance of the sewer system and its health relating to the greater good of the cities they represent, is not a new concept. In fact, the ancient Romans had their own goddess of the sewers. (l. to r.) Deputy Director Bruce MacDonald, Helaine Magid, Pac Chair Felice Hannah, Claire Levitan, Vickie Mazel Cloacina presided over the Cloaca Maxima (“Great Drain”), the main trunk of the system of sewers in Rome. Unfortunately, Queens Districts 12 and 13, the latter of which North Shore Towers is a part, have the dubious distinction of being the most problematic areas for the accumulation of grease in the sewer systems in the Borough and among the worst areas in New York City. It is such a concern that Mayor Bill DiBlasio has committed $1.5 billion to the sewer infrastructure of Queens with $770 million budgeted over the next four years. Two major components make up the Mayor’s plan: commercial and residential. The latter entails periodic inspections of restaurants, garages, hospitals, schools, and yes, churches, to ensure proper grease disposal techniques are being employed, with fines levied for violations. Service stations, for example, must collect the grease from its operations and have it picked up by certified recyclers for use in the production of biodiesel. Restaurants, too, must save old vegetable oil from fryolators, which can be reused in cooking or recycled for the making of soap or biodiesel. In fact, it is a state mandate that no less than 2% of the biodiesel used to heat our homes be composed of recycled vegetable oil. A comprehensive outreach program to educate the public on the proper disposal of cooking oils is being used to facilitate the latter component of the Mayor’s initiative. Since last September (2015), hundreds of agents have been canvassing the five boroughs, knocking on doors; imparting wisdom and handing out packets to residents. The bags used for these packets are biodegradable—made of corn!—and indistinguishable from the plastic ones ones used commercially. Along with an informative, full-color brochure, recipients get a bookmark and a gift, such as an oven mitt or rubber bottle opener. Thus far, 30,000 packets have been distributed. It is the agency’s goal to hand out 50,000 bags within a year’s time or by September 2016. The packets handed out to NST residents included a specially designed “grease pouch,” which can be used to collect cooking oils for disposal or storage and reuse. For more information, residents should visit nyc.gov.dep. DO Drink the Water! New York City’s water supply system comes from the Croton and Catskills/Delaware Watersheds and has been running for 165 years through 7400 miles of sewer. It is so vast that if it never rained again, there would be enough water to last 18 months, which sounds even more remarkable when you consider that the 9 million residents the system serves use a billion gallons of water a day! One often hears of New York City’s drinking water being the best in the nation. Those rumors are actually true and were corroborated by Director Sturcken at the meeting. He noted that only five cities in the U.S. are allowed to service its residents with unfiltered drinking water—water of a high enough quality to meet the Draconian measures of the government—with New York City being one of them, and the only one which gets its water from a surface system, as opposed to underground one. Still not convinced to get your drinking water directly from the tap? Consider this: the two major New York water-bottling plants, Coke and Pepsi, get their water from these selfsame sources. So why spend $3+ for a bottle of water when you can refill bottles from home for pennies a day? Director Sturcken addresses the crowd
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