Don’t let Thanksgiving dinner go down the drain with Indiana American Water

Everyone needs a game plan before Thanksgiving dinner. While it’s important to prepare the menu for turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and all other sides or desserts, there’s one potential problem homeowners should prepare for even earlier: the dreaded “FOG clog.”

The acronym “FOG” stands for fats, oils and greases, which can build up in pipes and cause clogs and plumbing problems. Indiana American Water identifies several clogging issues that happen all year long, but the numbers often skyrocket during the holiday season as a result of more seasonal feasts.

“Holiday gatherings bring people together, and the last thing anyone wants is a plumbing problem interrupting the celebration,” said Barry Suits, president of Indiana American Water.

“Keeping fats, oils, and grease out of drains is a simple way customers and the general public can protect their pipes and help keep our local wastewater systems running smoothly. A little extra care during holiday cleanup can make a long-term difference.”

While Indiana American Water might be known primarily as a drinking water brand, the company also serves as a wastewater utility that provides water to more than 15,000 people in several communities across the state. These systems include about 8,700 people in Northwest Indiana, including Lakes of the Four Seasons, Roselawn, and DeMotte.

The responsibility of Indiana American Water is to protect the health of individuals and families, while also caring for the public health of the environment.

“Clogging puts an undue stress on the system, especially if it clogs a main that several people are relying on,” said Joel Reuter, external affairs manager at Indiana American Water. “It does eventually require our crews to go out and clear the mains, which is a disruption in neighborhoods and more resources. In the filtering process, it can create problems that require a lot of heavy work on the systems during those following days after Thanksgiving.”

Many plumbers refer to the day after Thanksgiving as “Brown Friday,” as it is one of the busiest days of their year. The FOG clog can solidify in your pipes, which drastically slows down the drainage process. It’s also important to avoid flushing wipes, dental floss, cotton swabs, hair, paper towels, tissues, and cotton rounds.

“Most plumbing systems will take anything if you flush it, but they are a problem for wastewater providers, not just us. Avoiding it and throwing it in the trash, or when it comes to grease, pulling it in a tin can and making sure it becomes a solid — it’s much easier to dispose of in a friendly manner than it is to try to push it down a drain,” Reuter said.

Reuter encourages people to invest in a scraper, or a drain snake, prior to this holiday season. Especially if you have a turkey pan with grease and gravy, this alleviates the problems that can arise from wiping it out.

“Sometimes, this is a year-round occurrence. People put a lot of things down their wastewater systems that don’t belong,” Reuter said. “The day after Thanksgiving is the plumber’s dream if they’re trying to keep busy, because a lot of people have problems over their Thanksgiving dinner. The only thing we want stuffed this Thanksgiving is the turkey, not their pipes.”

To learn more about Indiana American Water, you can visit amwater.com/inaw.