What is a fatberg? You don’t want one.
It’s a giant ball of grease and fat and other material that clogs up sewer lines.
A fatberg was found this week in an 11-foot diameter sewer pipe known as the Lakeshore Interceptor. This fatberg was 100 feet long, 11 feet wide and as much as 6 feet tall. The Public Works Office of Macomb County says it “is the largest such mass in the memory of sewer workers in Macomb County.”
Fatbergs are not just a local problem — they occur in sewer systems around the world. Last year, a Fatberg in Baltimore caused a blockage that caused more than a million gallons of sewage to spill into a river. Earlier this year, a similar blockage caused 300,000 gallons to back up on the University of Michigan.
Macomb County has busted up this fatberg… in which the oil and grease mix with solid items, like baby wipes, which are the scourge of sewer systems across the country.