Turkey cooking oils can cause clogs, blockage in city pipes

TOPEKA (KSNT) – After you’re done cooking Thanksgiving dinner, the City of Topeka wants to make sure sure you to have a plan to properly dispose of cooking oil.

Most importantly: the city says do not pour it down the drain.

The city tells 27 News putting oil or grease down your kitchen sink can not only cause major damage to your own plumbing, but the city’s as well. When hot grease goes down the drain, it hits cold water and solidifies, making it stick to the sides of the pipes. If enough people do it, that oil will clog the city’s sewer system.

A blockage like that could cause major damage to the entire system, according to the city.

“A lot of the times, we just may not think about it,” Aaron Grams with the City of Topeka’s utility department said. “Once it goes down the drain it’s out of sight, out of mind. And when there’s a lot more volume of grease in the lines, that can be more detrimental to the sanitary sewer system.”

Grams recommends residents pour the hot grease into an aluminum can. Once it’s full, throw that can away in the trash.