Businesses on board grease plan

Paul Clinton

NEWPORT BEACH -- Restaurant owners, at least publicly, are saying they

support the city’s move this week to toughen its stance on grease heading

into city sewer lines.

Many of the restaurateurs contacted Friday said their eateries are

already equipped with grease interceptors to sift grease out of waste

that is put into sinks.

“We have a grease bin,” said Denyse Bartels, a manager at the Tale of

the Whale on Balboa Peninsula. “We don’t drain it into anything

underground.”

At Tuesday’s meeting, the City Council began a 120-dayinvestigation of

ways to reduce the amount of grease that collects in the city’s lines.

Often, grease blockages in the lines cause sewage overflows, which

results in a spill into Upper Newport Bay or Newport Harbor.

The city could consider requiring restaurants to install the grease

traps or face bills for the cleanup costs of the spills.

In 1996, the city passed an ordinance requiring new and remodeled

kitchens in the city to include the grease traps. The city also passed a

prohibition of discharging of grease into the lines.

However, environmentalists have criticized the city’s lax enforcement

of those laws.

When told of the new policy, Defend the Bay founder Bob Caustin, one

of the critics, said he was “glad to see them taking that by the horns.”

Susan Emmett, the manager at Villa Nova, said a grease trap was

installed in 1996 when the restaurant was rebuilt after a fire. Emmett

said she supports the new, tougher stance.

“I think it’s good they take action to make sure we’re all being

careful,” Emmett said. “If you have a grease trap, you have to maintain

it.”

The city is also expected to toughen up its regulation of those who

use the traps by demanding maintenance logs and, possibly, requiring

proof of grease-control measures when business permits are renewed.

Gordon Barien Brock, who owns both the Chart House and Billy’s at the

Beach, said the burden also falls on the city to clean its own lines.

Sometimes “the fault is that the city didn’t keep the pipes clean,”

Barien Brock said. “But the city should prevent any restaurant from

putting grease in” the lines.

The city has budgeted $1.6 million this year for overall maintenance

of the lines, $362,000 to replace sections of pipe, $117,000 to

photograph the blockages and $23,000 to remove tree roots from lines.

Assistant City Manager Dave Kiff said the city and restaurants should

work together.

“It really is a partnership,” Kiff said. “We’re going to try to make

it easy and cost effective to limit grease.”