What do you call a festering schoolbus-sized glob of lard? If you answered ‘fatberg,’ you’d fit right in at the U.K.’s largest water company. Thames Water uses the silly term to describe a serious lump of trouble that was, until recently, lurking in the London sewer system.
The 33,000-pound ‘berg came from modest beginnings: flushed wet wipes and food waste created from Brits pouring grease and fatty foods down the drain. “Fatberg creation is a vicious cycle,” Thames Water media relations manager Simon Evans told Henry Grabar of Atlantic Cities. “Fat clings to wipes, wipes cling to the fat.”
Neither of these substances should be in the sewer. As John Upton wrote last month, wet wipe packaging claims flushability, but wipes don’t come apart in sewers like toilet paper. “You can reach into the fat and you can pull out a wet wipe and it will be sturdy,” another Thames Water employee told NBC. And it’s easy to let a little fish ‘n’ chips grease slip down the drain when you don’t expect it to turn into Flubber’s Revenge: Return of the Grease Menace. While this fatberg is of record-breaking, monstrous proportions, average sewer buildup takes its toll, too. Thames Water spends $1.5 million monthly blasting out smaller fatty deposits, wrongful flushes, and other blockages.
Fatberg (yes, we’re on a first-name basis) managed to congeal itself until toilets started backing up. Sadly, this blob couldn’t just be killed with fire extinguishers: It took a team of eight to blast the monstrosity apart with high-pressure water hoses, and repairs are expected to take six weeks.
With a scent described as “the worst wet dog you can ever think of” and a texture that “feels like wax and smells much worse,” fatberg is a cautionary tale that will ensure years of nightmares for chafed-butt children doing the dishes. Terrifying photo below the fold:
Haven’t had enough? Here’s fatberg in action:
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While Evans says wet wipes and food waste “are the catalysts in this horrible fatberg game,” it’s worth remembering that like Frankenstein, we created this horrible fatberg game. And only we can kill it: Skip the wet wipes and dispose of food properly (compost or, fatberg forbid, the trash). If we fail in this task, there’s a small upside: Long after the last iceberg has melted, you’ll still have fatberg. You’ll ALL still have fatberg.
