Apr 28, 2026
It took one witness and a phone camera to reveal a greasy situation in the storm drains of Greece, New York.
Doug Bates was at a local Burger King when he spotted two workers walking out with grease pans and emptying them straight into a nearby storm sewer that drains directly into Paddy Hill Creek, NBC reports (1). He grabbed his phone, documented everything and came back later that night with paper towels to clean up as much of the mess as possible.
Advertisement
“As you drove by through here, you could smell the nasty, dirty, used oil,” Bates told NBC (1).
By the next morning, the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) police and a spill response team were already on site. The DEC confirmed between three and five gallons of used cooking oil had been dumped illegally. Officials placed an absorbent device where the sewer feeds into the creek and ticketed the employee for disposal of a substance injurious to fish and disposal of an unlawful substance into a public stream (1).
“The actions taken by the employee were not consistent with our policies or procedures,” Burger King franchise owner JSC Management said in a statement. “The matter was addressed immediately. Appropriate corrective action has been taken, including discipline and retraining, and procedures have been reinforced with the team (1).”
The company also said the location has a functioning grease holding tank. The employee simply chose not to use it (1).
A small incident with a very large price tag
What looks like a local story is actually a glimpse into one of America’s most expensive and least talked-about infrastructure problems.
When cooking grease enters the sewer system, it cools, hardens and bonds with other non-biodegradable waste, such as wipes, food scraps and hair, forming what engineers call “fatbergs,” (2) massive, concrete-hard blockages that can span hundreds of feet underground and take weeks to remove (3).
According to sources citing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, fat, oil and grease cause roughly 47% of the estimated 400,000 (4) sewer blockages that occur nationwide each year (5).
Advertisement
And the cost to taxpayers is staggering. U.S. municipalities collectively spend at least $1 billion annually on maintenance to remove clogs before they become full fatbergs, according to the National Association of Clean Water Agencies, cited by Pollution Prevention Resource Center (2).
New York City alone spends about $18.8 million (6) removing fatbergs each year, according to Popular Science, and those costs don’t stay with the city. They’re passed on to consumers via higher water and sewer rates (2).
But it’s not just a New York problem. It can happen anywhere.
For example, Fort Wayne, Indiana, spends half a million dollars a year clearing grease from its sewers, according to National Geographic (7). Portland, Oregon, shells out millions annually to prevent future blockages (8), and a 20-foot Baltimore fatberg caused a sewer overflow that sent about 1.2 million gallons of untreated waste into a local waterway (2).
Must Read
- Dave Ramsey warns nearly 50% of Americans are making 1 big Social Security mistake — are you doing the same?
- Thanks to Jeff Bezos, you can now become a landlord for as little as $100 — and no, you don't have to deal with tenants or fix freezers. Here's how
- Robert Kiyosaki says this 1 asset will surge 400% in a year and begs investors not to miss this ‘explosion’
Join 250,000+ readers and get Moneywise’s best stories and exclusive interviews first — clear insights curated and delivered weekly. Subscribe now.
Why restaurants are the main culprit
The Burger King incident is far from isolated. Restaurants and food service businesses are the leading source of grease entering U.S. sewer systems, and regulators know it.
According to New York City’s 2016 State of the Sewers Report, cited by NWPX Park, grease is responsible for 71% of all sewer backups citywide, of which NYC sees anywhere from 23,000 to 75,000 per year (9).
That’s precisely why many U.S. municipalities legally require commercial kitchens to install grease interceptors before cooking oil can reach the sewer (7) system.
Advertisement
In this case, the Burger King location had a functioning holding tank on-site. The employee bypassed it anyway, and the public is now footing part of the cleanup bill.
What it means for your wallet
Fatbergs are effectively a tax on every household connected to a municipal sewer system. When cities spend millions clearing blocked pipes, that money has to come from somewhere.
Some, like Portland, have grease-related surcharge programs to prevent the costs of treatment for high-strength wastewater from being passed on to other ratepayers. Without enforcement, every ratepayer absorbs the bill (10).
That bill can be hefty, since fatberg removal is inherently complex. It requires the use of high-powered water jets, saws and pick-axes to break the hardened mass into smaller chunks for manual or vacuum extraction. A single blockage can take hundreds of hours to clear, according to Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (3).
When a fatberg causes a sewage overflow into a nearby waterway, the environmental damage and cleanup costs compound the price tag well beyond what it would have cost to simply prevent the blockage in the first place (2).
The fix at an individual level is simple: Never pour cooking oil or grease down a drain. Let it cool, solidify and throw it in the trash. It’s a minor inconvenience that saves cities and taxpayers millions.
Article Sources
We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our editorial ethics and guidelines.
NBC/WHEC (1); Pollution Prevention Resource Center (2); Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (3); Water Conditioning & Purification (4); City of Hampton/EPA (5); Popular Science (6); National Geographic (7); City of Portland (8); NWPX Park (9); City of Portland – Extra Strength Charge Program (10)
You May Also Like
- Turning 50 with $0 saved for retirement? Most people don’t realize they’re actually just entering their prime earning decade. Here are 6 ways to catch up fast
- Inside a $1B real estate fund offering access to thousands of income-producing rental properties — with flexible minimums starting at $10
- Dave Ramsey says this 7-step plan ‘works every single time’ to kill debt, get rich in America — and that ‘anyone’ can do it
- Here are 5 easy ways to own multiple properties like Bezos and Beyoncé. You can start with $10 (and no, you don’t have to manage a single thing)
With a writing and editing career spanning over 13 years, Emma creates and refines content across a broad spectrum of industries, including personal finance, lifestyle, travel, health & wellness, real estate, beauty & fitness and B2B/SaaS/tech. Her versatility comes through contributions to high-profile clients like Moneywise, Healthline, Narcity and Bob Vila, producing content that informs and engages, along with helping book authors tell their stories.
