{"id":63752,"date":"2018-11-27T05:03:09","date_gmt":"2018-11-27T12:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-takes-grease-makes-electricity\/"},"modified":"2018-11-27T12:03:09","modified_gmt":"2018-11-27T12:03:09","slug":"durango-takes-grease-makes-electricity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-takes-grease-makes-electricity\/","title":{"rendered":"Durango takes grease, makes electricity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"John
John Ford empties his peanut cooking oil in Durango\u2019s collection container Saturday at Santa Rita Park. The Santa Rita Water Reclamation Facility wants to keep the oils from being poured into drains.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Fried turkey is often a staple of Thanksgiving meals, but making one produces a pesky byproduct: used oil.<\/p>\n

Dumping it down the drain can cause all kinds of problems for residents and for the city \u2013 it\u2019s hard on garbage disposals and residential pipes, and it clogs city pipes.<\/p>\n

And often, when frying a turkey, there\u2019s too much grease to throw in the garbage. That\u2019s why the city of Durango, around the holidays, offers a way to get rid of that used oil.<\/p>\n

The Durango Santa Rita Water Reclamation Facility accepted used cooking oil from dozens of residents over the holiday weekend, at no cost. The oil, which once produced energy in the form of food for humans, will be used to generate electricity for the water reclamation facility, said Assistant Utilities Director Jarrod Biggs.<\/p>\n

The process works something like this: Used cooking oil collected by residents is dropped off at the wastewater plant. Once all the oil is collected for the day, city employees use a forklift to move the vat to a digester with enzymes that break down waste. That digester uses microbes to consume sludge from the city, including the used oil, and turns it into methane. That methane is then pumped into a turbine that produces energy for the plant.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can use that (grease) in our digester to make electricity and buy down the cost of our plant,\u201d Biggs said.<\/p>\n

Collecting used oil and turning it into energy is nothing new for the Santa Rita Water Reclamation Facility. It\u2019s been doing it during the holidays for years, Biggs said. But it wouldn\u2019t be worth it to offer the service year-round, he said.<\/p>\n

\"Brian
Brian Scholz with the Durango Santa Rita Water Reclamation Facility works at the cooking oil collection site Saturday at Santa Rita Park assisting people dropping off leftover Thanksgiving cooking oils. The city wants to keep the oils from being poured into drains, which can clog city and residential infrastructure.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cIt\u2019s a game of quantities. That\u2019s what makes the Thanksgiving and Christmas so good, we collect a lot more (grease),\u201d Biggs said. \u201cIf we were collecting a couple gallons every couple days, it\u2019s not well-worth the effort to have staff on site to manage that.\u201d<\/p>\n

But even with the excessive amount of grease produced during the holidays, the gas produced by the grease dumped in the digester is \u201cjust a burp\u201d compared to what the plant produces each day, said Brian Scholz, operator with the reclamation facility. The digester processes up to 7,000 gallons of sludge each day. By comparison, the city collected about 50 gallons of used oil Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, Scholz said.<\/p>\n

The Santa Rita Water Reclamation Facility is the largest construction project the city has ever undertaken<\/a>. The $54 million improvements are being made at the behest of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to bring water released from that plant up to nutrient pollution standards. The improvements will also increase the plant\u2019s capacity \u2013 six new buildings and five structures are planned as part of the facility \u2013 and rid the area of a putrid smell<\/a> that often pervades areas around Santa Rita Park.<\/p>\n

Collecting oil and using it to produce electricity is far more preferable for the city than the alternative \u2013 dumping the grease down the drain. It\u2019s no secret that oils and fats are bad for pipes: City officials in London found a 15-ton \u201cfatburg\u201d made of grease and towelettes<\/a> in the sewers there from people dumping grease down the drain.<\/p>\n

Oils and fats congeal at low temperatures, causing clogs in drains that the city often has to clean, Biggs said. Grease sticks to the walls of the sewer lines, both residential and public, and can eventually clog a pipe \u2013 much like plaque can build up in someone\u2019s arteries.<\/p>\n

Of all the sewer overflows, causing water to leave sewer pipes where it shouldn\u2019t in the past year, 48 percent were caused by grease and fat buildup, Biggs said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are wanting to implement and get everybody in the spirit of, \u2018It is not good to flush (grease),\u2019 because it could cause you personally problems and it has a history of causing the city problems,\u201d Biggs said.<\/p>\n

bhauff@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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