About 80 FOG & pretreatment professionals gathered in Hood River this week for the Western States Alliance 2018 FOG Forum. Attendees were treated to 19 presentations covering a variety of topics which can be found here.
At SwiftComply we love to participate in these FOG events, as there’s always so much information to be shared! Here are our top three takeaways:
There are 3 types of FOG programs
The FOG program approaches of the cities like Bend, Portland, Tacoma, Gresham and Tempe coupled with our own experience in Ireland and the UK, indicate that there three types of FOG program.
- Reactive
- Nurture & Influence
- Command & Control
Oakley Taylor described how striking the right balance between outreach and enforcement has been the key to success in the City of Bend’s FOG program. Oakley’s use of the phrase “It’s easier to catch bees with honey than it is with vinegar” certainly rings true when dealing with FSEs in our opinion.
The Impact of Coffee
One of the most debated topics within the industry is whether coffee shops generate FOG.
Zach Conde outlined the City of Boise study on this area and returned a resounding yes – coffee shops do generate FOG.
Boise found that the amount of FOG generated was linked to the number of cups of coffee served, with one coffee shop serving 1,000 cups per day filling a 1500 gallon interceptor with grease in 2 months.
Kudos to Zach and the pretreatment team in the Boise for their work on this study.
The Future of FOG is Digital
At SwiftComply we believe that technology is an integral part of every industry and this is why we are committed to building modern data management solutions geared at supporting FOG programs across the globe. We thoroughly enjoyed Andrew Bird’s take on FOG futurology, which provided a glimpse into the future and the potential impacts of IoT and blockchain technology on the industry. Mark Adheart described Riptide Tek’s real-time FOG monitor and its potential benefits for cities and FSEs.
Paul Kramer (City of Gresham) described how SwiftComply reduces his FOG program administration costs by 85%, saving the City a whopping $69 per FSE / year. We are thrilled to support Paul and his team.
We’d love to tell you how SwiftComply eliminates data entry and cuts administration time.
