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City Council approves new sewage regulations
Grease disposal prohibited, removal devices required
By Gretchen Knaup
The best way to solve a problem is to prevent the problem from starting at all. This is especially true when it comes to environmental issues. That's why the city council unanimously approved new sewage regulations for Sunnyvale at its most recent meeting.
During the April 17 meeting, three amendments were proposed by the public works department to bring current ordinances up to date. The amendments concern the prohibition of discharging grease to the sewer and with updating definitions and terms in order to provide consistency with the rate water study and the financing plan. "It was the right thing to do", said Councilwoman Julia Miller.
"I think we are going to have a water shortage, so staff is getting ready for that," Miller added. "We need to be ready for the future."
The new regulations create stricter rules. In order to comply with the new restrictions, companies, as well as individuals, are going to have to be more careful with exactly what they put into the sewers.
First, the council decided to prohibit grease disposal in any public or private sanitary sewer, storm drainage systems, or into land, streets, or waterways. Also, a grease removal device is required.
The second section requires new or replacement commercial or industrial facilities for which a building permit is issued after July 1, 2001, be constructed with a grease removal device. The third section concerns construction requirements. It states new commercial or industrial buildings permitted to be built after the stated date must have a separate plumbing system that separates industrial waste from domestic waste.
According to the public works department, the prohibition of grease should reduce maintenance costs of sewer lines. Also, the new regulations will help prevent or minimize potential spills from sewers due to grease blockages. Preventing these spills will, in turn, prevent additional cleanup costs, enforcement actions, or fines against the city by state and federal regulatory agencies.
The pre-existing policy had no requirements for food service industries to use grease removal devices. Also, there were no requirements by the city to maintain operations of such a device, if one had been voluntarily installed. Therefore, there was no way to check up on the possible unsanitary conditions. Nor were there any requirements for new buildings to have separate plumbing of waste.
According to public works, the new amendments will enable the city of Sunnyvale to effectively monitor commercial, as well as industrial facilities.
Notifications of the proposed changes were mailed to all restaurants in Sunnyvale in January of this year. To date, there have been no statements of opposition filed or recorded.
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Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
