North Texas Plumbing Is Helping Fort Worth Businesses Comply With The City's Grease Trap Sizing Requirements

North Texas Plumbing, a commercial grease trap plumber that specializes in grease trap repair and installation services, is helping Fort Worth residents and businesses understand the rules and regulations enforced by the city regarding the sizing of grease traps.

A spokesperson for North Texas Plumbing talks about the importance of having grease interceptors on commercial properties by saying, “Grease traps are installed on a property to capture all the FOG (fats, oils, and greases) escaping its drainage. They ensure that the sludge from a commercial establishment’s kitchens doesn’t enter the city’s plumbing. If you think having them installed is a big redundant expense that you could rather avoid paying, wait till your plumbing gets choked by FOG buildup or worse yet when the city penalizes you for your bad decision. Grease traps are an essential, non-negotiable part of your infrastructure if you run a food service business or any other company that has a kitchen on its premises that serves a lot of people. If you are in the Dallas Fort Worth area or anywhere else in North Texas, you can rely on North Texas Plumbing, the best grease interceptor plumber in the region to help you comply with your city’s ordinances and also save you a fortune in plumbing costs.”

The grease trap sizing and design criteria for the City of Fort Worth apply to all commercial food service establishments, including those that are undergoing new construction, interior remodeling to accommodate expansion or operational modifications, or changes of ownership or occupancy and facilities which may be experiencing difficulty in achieving compliance with maintenance and/or wastewater discharge limitations.

Fort Worth’s grease trap sizing determinations are based on operational data provided by business owners or their contractors. In approving a customer’s plumbing or grease interceptor design, the City of Fort Worth explicitly states that it does not accept liability for the failure of a system to adequately treat wastewater to achieve effluent quality requirements. It stresses that it is the responsibility of the generator and/or contractors to ensure the appropriate level of treatment necessary for compliance with environmental and wastewater regulations.

To arrive at the final sizing requirement, Fort Worth officials multiply the number of meals served at the peak operating hour, the peak factor, the waste flow rate, the retention time, and the storage factor (liquid capacity). The peak factor for fast food restaurants is 1.33 and for all other food service types is 1.00. The waste flow rate with a dishwasher is 6 gallons, without a dishwasher is 5 gallons, for a single service kitchen is 2 gallons, and for a food waste disposer is 1 gallon. The retention time for commercial kitchen waste is 2.5 hours and for a single-service kitchen is 1.5 hours. The storage factor for a fully equipped commercial kitchen for an 8-hour operation is 1, for a 16-hour operation is 2, for a 24-hour operation is 3, and for a single-service kitchen is 1.5.

When the sizing formulas used by the City of Fort Worth result in the determination of a grease trap that is less than 750 gallons in capacity, that minimum size is recommended for all restaurant applications. However, the City of Fort Worth emphasizes that under no circumstances exterior grease traps of less than 500 gallons capacity be utilized.

Finally, if a Professional Engineer or Master Plumber is supplying custom sizing requirements, the plans must, include all calculations with a specific site, must be sealed, and submitted to the Water Department by a Texas Licensed Professional Engineer, show all calculations with recommended size, and be submitted to the Water Department for review, and approval. Failure to include any of the above will result in the use of the UPC size criteria.

Dallas Fort Worth businesses and homeowners looking for the best grease trap service and repair in the region can call North Texas Plumbing at (817) 371-0709 or write to it at contact@dallasfortworthplumbing.com for appointments and inquiries.