XPost: soc.support.fat-acceptance, uk.local.london   
   From: pp@dont-email.me   
      
   A 15-ton "fatberg," caked with grease and fortified with wet   
   wipes was extracted from London sewers — in the nick of time —   
   by an expert team of sewage flushers from the Thames Water   
   company.   
      
   Had the titanic mass gone undiscovered, a company press officer   
   told NBC News, "we could have had sewage popping out of manholes   
   all over London."   
      
   An eight-member team used shovels and jets of water to dislodge   
   the pulpy aggregation of cooking fat and flushed wet wipes,   
   uncovered after Kingston, Surrey residents complained about   
   unflushable toilets. Together, the wipes and grease formed "a   
   congealed wet mash" the size of a bus that smelled like "the   
   worst wet dog you can ever think of."   
      
   Thames Water spends about $1.5 million (£1 million) every month   
   on removing odd objects from about 108,000 kilometers of   
   underground ducts. But this "fatberg," nurtured by the delicate   
   preferences of the wet wipers of Kingston, Surrey, was a record-   
   breaker.   
      
   "While we've removed greater volumes of fat from under central   
   London in the past, we've never seen a single, congealed lump of   
   lard this big clogging our sewers before," Gordon Hailwood,   
   waste contracts supervisor for Thames Water said in a release.   
      
   Wet wipes and grease: A disastrous combo in any country   
   For years, organizations like the North Texas Grease Abatement   
   Council have been warning citizens about pouring away fat from a   
   frying pan or grease from the griddle down the drain. But the   
   new scourge of the underground are almost-flushables — moistened   
   towelettes that will be swept away by your toilet bowl, but can   
   lurk underground for much longer than an ordinary sheet of   
   toilet paper.   
      
   In fact, flushed wet wipes are overtaking solidified cooking   
   grease as the most costly clogger of sewage piping in some parts   
   of the U.S., Cynthia Finley, director of regulatory affairs at   
   the National Association of Clean Water Agencies, told NBC News.   
   USA Today reported that a truckload of cloth wipes were removed   
   from a plant in Minnesota this spring, and in Raleigh, North   
   Carolina, wipes are the biggest source of sewer blockages. NACWA   
   is working with a fabrics industry organization to educate wet   
   wipers on how to best dispose of their naps, and adjust the use   
   directions that come with products with the "flushable" label. A   
   combination of fat and wet wipes? That "can be very hard to deal   
   with," Finley said.   
      
   Meat fats like the white parts of bacon, or goose fat, or   
   vegetable fats like Crisco, are solids at room temperature, when   
   they're stored in a jar on the countertop. On a hot pan they   
   turn runny and can be poured down a sink.   
      
   But once they cool off, they turn solid and sticky once again.   
   "Fats and wet wipes together are just a recipe for disaster,"   
   Craig Rance, press officer at Thames Water told NBC News. The   
   stuff may disappear down the drain, but down in the sewers, "a   
   bit of fat will catch and a wet wipe will add on to it and it   
   will catch and catch and catch."   
      
   Britons warned: 'Bin it — don’t block it   
   Baby nappies, sanitary napkins, underwear and even action   
   figures are regular visitors to the Thames River treatment   
   plant, but wet-naps are particularly insidious because they   
   don't come with a "Don't flush," warning. Even if some companies   
   insist that wet wipes can be sucked away by your toilet bowl,   
   that doesn't mean they won't cause a problem underground Rance   
   says.   
      
   Unlike sheets of toilet paper, which will break apart if they're   
   dunked in a jar of water and shaken about, wet wipes last   
   longer. Embedded in the "fatbergs" underground, they linger on   
   for weeks. "You can reach into the fat and you can pull out a   
   wet wipe and it will be sturdy," Rance said.   
      
   London's 'fatberg' cleanup lasted three nights with the crew   
   working overnight. After the mound was loosened by shovels, jets   
   of water broke the mound into smaller fragments, which were then   
   sucked up into a sewage tanker. The goo was then trucked off to   
   a landfill.   
      
   In May this year, Thames Water and United Utilities joined   
   forces to warn the public of the twin menace of grease and wet   
   wipes. To remind Britons about the potential threat of flushed   
   grease and wet wipes, the company has adopted the dictum: "Bin   
   it — don’t block it."   
      
   "We’re seeing more and more fat and wet wipes, which should   
   never be flushed even if the packaging says ‘flushable,’ ending   
   up in our sewers," Rob Smith, Thames Water’s chief sewer   
   flusher, said in a statement published earlier this year.   
      
   The problem gets particularly sticky after food-related   
   holidays, Rance said, and Thames Water gets a delayed Christmas   
   bonus in a breakout of sewer blockages just around the new year.   
   Rance anticipates that his American colleagues face a similar   
   problem just after Thanksgiving.   
      
   http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/fatberg-dead-ahead-15-tons-   
   slime-wet-naps-clog-london-6C10843060   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)