After meeting with officials from DHEC and the City of Columbia, I have learned how significant of a threat cooking grease can be for our sewer systems and ultimately our waterways. 

Often times folks will dump their leftover cooking grease down the kitchen sink without any thought to where it ends up.  Once in the sewer system, grease hardens and sticks to the inside of the pipes.  Over time, the grease inside the pipes will build up and eventually block up the entire pipe causing sewage overflows into residential areas or directly into our rivers and creeks.  An easy way to prevent this from occurring is by collecting cooled cooking oils and grease and throwing it away in the trash.  For more information on how you can keep our sewer lines free from grease, please check out this LINK to the City of Columbia's "Trash The Grease" page and find out how you can receive a FREE "Fat Trapper" from the city.  It is everyone's responsibility to protect our waterways and this is an easy change we can make that will have a major impact.