US News

Repulsive ‘fatberg’ causes sewage overflow in Baltimore

Officials in Baltimore announced earlier this week that a massive, concealed lump of fats, oils, grease and wet wipes was to blame for an overflow that dumped some 1.2 million gallons of sewage into the Jones Falls watershed last week, the city’s Department of Public Works announced.

The revolting mass was discovered in a sewer main near Baltimore’s Penn Station, where it blocked an estimated 85 percent of a 24-inch-wide, 100-year-old pipe.

“They sent a machine with a closed-circuit television camera into the sewer, and soon discovered the walls of the sewer pipe were caked with congealed fats, oils and grease (FOG),” the agency announced Monday. “Unfortunately, as they were working in the pipe a backup occurred and led to a sewer overflow.”

The department also released a short video of what they found.

A much larger “fatberg” was recently discovered in London, where workers are expected to take up to several weeks to remove the 143-ton, 820-foot mass found in a sewer just 11.5 feet below street level. Workers in Baltimore, however, have mostly scraped away the fatberg and sent the disgusting detritus to a landfill, the Baltimore Sun reports.

City officials took the opportunity to remind residents that only “poo, pee and toilet paper” should be flushed down the toilet.

“Do not put [fats, oils and grease] down the drain,” the agency said. “During food preparation and cleanup, pour unused grease from the ‘pan to the can.’ Once it solidifies in an empty can, put in the trash. Do not flush ‘flushable’ wipes; put them in the trash instead. Wet wipes don’t break down in water and create sewer blockages.”

Officials in New York City told The Post in 2014 that the city was spending $18 million annually to collect and remove debris caught in machinery at its 14 wastewater treatment plants. Nearly all of the debris was flushable wipes, according to the city’s Department of Environmental Protection.