BALTIMORE — A “fatberg” — a massive lump of congealed fat, wet wipes and other refuse — has been blamed for a sewer overflow that discharged about 1.2 million gallons of sewage into the Jones Falls earlier this month, the Baltimore Sun is reporting.
The Baltimore Department of Public Works said it discovered the fatberg in a sewer main between Baltimore Penn Station and the 1700 block of Charles Street. Engineers decided to explore the sewer to determine the source of multiple sewer overflows in the area. They discovered that the walls of the 100-year-old, 24-inch wide pipe were stopped up by lumps of congealed fat, oils and grease. The pipe was 85 percent blocked in some areas, stopping the flow of sewage.
Other, similar fatbergs were discovered throughout the city’s pipes, but none as large as the one discovered under Penn Station, the Sun reported.
Most of the fatberg has already been scraped away and disposed of, according to the Sun report.
Fatbergs are formed when restaurants and homeowners pour fats, oils and grease down their drains. When the substances go down a pipe, they congeal and harden, often attaching to other items that don’t break down in the sewer, like wet wipes.