DETROIT (WWJ) - It was 100 feet long, 11 feet wide, 6 feet tall and made of fats, oils and grease.
Pieces of the "fatberg" discovered in a Macomb County sewer pipe are part of a new display opening Thursday at the Michigan Science Center in Detroit.
The fatberg is a collection of fats, oils and grease, mixed with solid items that are flushed down sewer pipes, such as baby and makeup wipes -- all congealing into a mass. When it was removed from a Clinton Township sewer pipe in 2018, it weighed 19 tons.
Officials with Macomb County Public Works have been using pieces from the fatberg to show the dangers of flushing certain items, like grease and baby wipes, down the drain and the toilet. The fatberg was blocking a 11-foot diameter pipe known as the Lakeshore Interceptor, and it cost about $100,000 to remove.
With the help of a grant from the National Science Foundation, researchers at Wayne State conducted a study of the fatberg and are sharing their findings with other sewer system operators. The Michigan Science Center display aims to teach visitors how community infrastructure can be negatively impacted by these items and provide them with actions they can adopt to mitigate future occurrences of these man-made fatbergs.