Someone is illegally dumping thousands of gallons of grease into manholes in Orange, causing major problems with the sewage system and costing the town thousands of dollars.
Town officials said they have already spent about $5,000 on cleanup efforts.
"We don't even have any money for it in the budget because it's something that doesn't normally occur and is not supposted to be occurring," said R. Scott Allen, administrator of the town's Water Pollution Control Authority.
Allen suspects it could be the work of a company hired to pump restaurant grease traps and haul the grease away. He believes the company may be emptying truckloads into manholes along Boston Post Road to avoid paying disposal fees, according to police.
Police said the grease is making its way into the town's sewage system and damaging the pump station. The town is forced to take on extra expenses and pump out the station almost weekly for several months so it works properly.
"They clog up and now we have a mess on our hands and we have a pump station that doesn’t function properly which means we cannot service the rest of the sewer users properly if we don’t get it taken care of right away," Allen explained.
Police said the dumping is happening somewhere from 500 Boston Post Road east to the West Haven border.
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There are hundreds of manholes along the route and the dumping appears to occur mostly Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, but police aren't sure if it’s happening during the day or night. They also have no way to determine if the grease is from a business in Orange or elsewhere.
Police are asking residents to call 203-891-2130 and report tank-style trucks parked along commercial properties on the Boston Post Road. Officers will then try to determine if it is there for a legitimate reason for the truck to be there.
Police are only interested in these trucks if they are parking in a commercial parking area. Suspicious trucks include those with two hoses, which would allow trucks to pump out a grease trap and then dump the grease into a manhole.
