DeKalb County and the Atlanta Apartment Association have launched a six-month pilot program to collect household fats, oil and grease for recycling. The effort is designed to keep the grease from county sewer pipes.
The complexes in the pilot program are:
1. Century Peachtree Creek, 3001 Northwest Expressway, Atlanta, 30341.
2. Clarkston Station, 3629 Montreal Creek Cir, Clarkston, 30021.
3. Edgewater Vista, 100 Lumby Ct., Decatur, 30034/
4. Lakes at Indian Creek, 751 N. Indian Creek Dr., Clarkston, 30021
5. Pointe at Lenox Park, 1900 Druid Hills Road, Atlanta, 30019.
6. Post Glen, 4120 Peachtree Road NE, Atlanta, 30319.
7. Sienna Ridge, 2283 Plaster Road, Atlanta, 30345.
The yellow goop from the bottom of the pan used to fry fish could put DeKalb County in the rare spot of being known for innovation, not problems.
A business owner used the cooking oil to demonstrate how easily about 2,200 apartment dwellers can help heal the water and sewer system whose $1.35 billion upgrade was the first focus of a special grand jury corruption probe.
“That’s it,” Green Grease owner Warren Crawley said as he dumped the grease into a collection bin outside Edgewater Vistas south of Decatur last month. “And you save money and the community by not putting grease down the drain.”
Grease clogs were behind 70 percent of the 871 raw sewage spills DeKalb reported in just a five-year span. The problem was bad enough that, in 2010, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ordered DeKalb make $700 million in sewer upgrades to curb the leaks.
County leaders have since begun more than $1.35 billion worth of projects designed to update the system.
The grease-collection program, being tested at seven apartment complexes in conjunction with the Atlanta Apartment Association, is one of the first partnerships in that overall plan.
Under the voluntary campaign, Green Grease will collect grease from custom-built bins and recycle it into a biofuel. The apartment association is funding the receptacles, while DeKalb paid to clean the sewer lines around the complexes in the program.
The county also cleared sewer lines at comparable complexes and, after six months, will compare those pipes to the ones in the program. The goal is for those in the program to have far less grease clogging the lines – and creating the potential for more spills.
The program appears to be the first in the state.
Grease adds up: Columbus Water Works collected 300 gallons of cooking oil in a single-day event in that southwest Georgia city in 2012. And since 2009, Cary, N.C., has collected more than 5,500 gallons of grease from multifamily complexes and homes as part of its curbside collection program.
“We’re starting to see a much more sophisticated renter, demanding this type of initiative,” said Mitch Harrison, chief operating officer of the First Communities management company, which has three complexes in the program. “This is the kind of partnership the works for everyone.”
Interim CEO Lee May took up the program after years of pushing by County Commissioner Stan Watson. Both describe the pilot program as an attempt by DeKalb to get a handle on the main cause of its sewer spills.
May said success with grease recycling could help solve an image problem as much as the environmental problem for the county.
The water/sewer system has been at the center of allegations of corruption. The special grand jury looking into possible contract kickbacks, for instance, first focused on projects linked to the watershed system overhaul.
And a few months after the federal order, in May 2011, a department fats, oil and grease inspector pleaded guilty to taking bribes from restaurant owners in his work. At the time, District Attorney Robert James said he thought the case was “not the end of it.”
Last year, James pursued charges that CEO Burrell Ellis had shaken down county vendors — including at least one with a watershed contract — in exchange for campaign cash.
“We understand the need to clean DeKalb County in every way,” May said. “This is one of our actions to do just that.”
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