BLOCKED LINE LEADS TO SECOND SEWER OVERFLOW THIS WEEK  

CARY , NC – Grease and paper combined to block a portion of the Town of Cary ’s sanitary sewer system resulting in a 4,800-gallon spill detected on Tuesday in the 200 block of Turquoise Creek Drive in western Cary .  Some of the untreated waste reached an ornamental lake adjacent to Prestonwood County Club, but no fish-kill was observed.  It took repair crews several hours to unblock the line.  They installed a temporary dam to keep the waste from traveling throughout the lake, pumped the waste back into the municipal system, and applied lime to the affected land.  

To decrease such incidents, the Town of Cary in 1998 established a Pretreatment Program designed to work with property owners to reduce the amount of fats, oils, and greases (FOG) that are dumped each year into the municipal sewer system.   Helpful publications from the FOG program, which are available at www.townofcary.org, include:  

• What do I do if I have a sewer blockage?
• Do's and Don'ts - Sanitary Sewer System
• FOG Bill Insert
• How to dispose of cooking grease
• How blockage affects the sewer system
• Common items that should not be disposed of in the sewer

The web section also includes a short video of the inside of a sewage line coated with grease.  

The Clean Water Act requires public notice in the form of a news release issued by public works operators within 48 hours of the detection of a wastewater overflow of 1,000 gallons or greater that also reaches surface waters.  Paid advertisements are also necessary for spills in excess of 14,999 gallons.  

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