Grease Interceptor Service for Reno Schools, Hospitals and Institutions

Named in the ordinance

Among the users required to install and maintain a gravity interceptor, RMC 12.16.555(b)(3) lists “schools and nursing homes” alongside restaurants. Hospital kitchens, university dining halls, correctional and senior-living facilities fall under the same definition: food preparation and dish sanitizing on site. The Environmental Control permit, the annual inspection and the three-year trip-ticket rule apply exactly as they do to a restaurant, with the tank usually several times larger.

Why institutional tanks fail differently

A 3,000-gallon interceptor behind a cafeteria does not back up a sink; it quietly passes grease once the bottom compartment is packed with solids. The 25% rule in (ii)a is measured as floating grease plus settled solids against design depth, and in a large tank the solids are the half that gets missed. A full pump-out — both compartments, walls scraped, tees checked — is the service; a skim of the top chamber is not.

What a facilities office needs on paper

• A written scope: full evacuation of all compartments, baffle and tee inspection, manifested disposal, written report
• Trip tickets with gallons and percent-full, formatted for an audit file (three years on site under (ii)f)
• Consolidated invoicing across sites and a service calendar that follows the school year or the clinical schedule
• Access confirmation: lids clear and reachable, because the code lets the city inspect “with or without notice” (12.16.555(a)(5)(i))

Summer and shutdown

A school tank pumped in June sits for ten weeks; the solids keep digesting and the smell is what the custodian finds in August. Pump at shutdown, not before the last week of service, and plan the first fall pump-out from the September count, not the June one.