Restaurants connected to the town’s sewer system have until Dec. 31 to install expensive new grease traps, and some business owners are not happy about it.
The requirement – aimed at preventing food byproducts and waste from clogging pipes – mainly affects restaurants located in the downtown, waterfront, and North Plymouth areas.
Restaurants have known for some time that they would have to make the upgrades. The Plymouth Public Health Department, now called the Public Health Division, informed them by letter in November of last year that they must install a state-approved, flow-appropriate indoor automatic grease trap or a minimum 2,000-gallon external grease trap. A reminder letter went out in August.
But it comes at a time when many restaurants are struggling to balance increasing operational costs against customers’ resistance to higher prices. Installing a grease trap can cost as much as $10,000, businesses say.
The requirement is meant to prevent fats, oils, and grease from blocking sewers, the letter said, citing cooking oil, shortening, butter, margarine, lard, meat fats, food scraps, baked goods, sauces, and dairy products as examples.
Karen Keane, director of the Health Division, said the concern is not new.
“Years ago, we started working with the plumbing department, engineering, and the sewer division because we were noticing that more and more grease was entering the public sewer system,” Keane said.
She said that as dishes and cookware are cleaned, fats, oils, and grease go down the drain. Grease traps catch such waste to prevent it from going into the sewer system. The grease must be periodically pumped out by an outside contractor. Some of it can be recycled to make biofuel and other products. Some ends up in landfills.
Grease can cause a “FOG-berg” – a fats-oils-and-grease combo – which can cause sewage to back up, Keane said.
“Nobody wants that,” she said.
She estimated that 129 Plymouth restaurants are tied into the municipal sewer system.
Keane said the town has granted a variance to some small restaurants in the historic district that are not allowed to modify their building or would have to tear up the street to put in an external grease trap. Each variance must be approved by the five-member Board of Health, which operates separately from the Health Division.
Keane said her department has not heard any complaints from restaurants.
“A few of our restaurants have said they really see a difference once they put in the new grease traps,” she said.
But restaurant owners contacted by the Independent had varying reactions.
Dick Quintal, chair of the Select Board and owner of Squinny’s Pizza, on Scobee Circle in the Plymouth Industrial Park, said he already has two grease traps, and is planning to install a third when the pizza business, now takeout-only, expands to offer seating.
Quintal said Keane has told him that if a restaurant owner cannot get a contractor to the work in time, they will be granted some latitude.
Other restaurant owners were less enthusiastic.
“We will comply,” said Nina Peters, co-owner of The Tasty and Honey Baby, both in the heart of downtown on Court Street. “We don’t have to like it, but we will do it.”
Peters expects to pay $20,000 to install new grease traps at both establishments.
In an email, Jordan Chabot, owner of Speedwell Tavern on Main Street, called the grease traps “incredibly expensive and burdensome.”
Chabot said he will have close for a week and spend thousands of dollars to get the work done.
“I worry for my restaurant neighbors downtown who may not be able to handle such a burden,” he said.
Chabot added that the town is willing to give him until January to comply so that he can coordinate the work with the replacement of floor tiles.
“That was appreciated,” he said.
Two other restaurant owners on Main and Court streets declined to comment, citing fear of retaliation from town officials.
Fred Thys can be reached at fred@plymouthindependent.org.