Sussex council weighs grease-trap requirement

The Sussex Borough Council will host a public hearing and vote Feb. 21 on an ordinance to require grease traps for any establishment that has a food-service component.

The ordinance was introduced at the council’s Feb.9 meeting.

“The general idea is that if an establishment has a food-service component, regardless of whether it has existed in the past or in the future, to have a grease trap,” township attorney Frank McGovern said.

A grease trap is a plumbing device aimed at preventing grease from passing into the municipality’s sewer system.

McGovern said the ordinance would be enforced by the borough.

Council president Robert Holowach suggested adding a deadline, such as Dec. 31, 2023, by which a business would have to install a grease trap or have an existing system cleaned.

“I’m talking about the actual kitchen inspections,” he said. “We should have a list of everybody who has one of those grease traps and give them until the end of the year. That’s a decent 10 months.”

Councilman Frank Dykstra said establishments used to have to present an inspection log.

Holowach said the ordinance was proposed because there have been blockages in the sewer system.

“There’s places that use grease pretty heavy and don’t have a trap or traps,” he said. “So once it’s not cleaned, it just lips out and goes into our system anyway, and then it gets into our section of the main, and we’re responsible to clear it.”