Who needs one: 2021 Virginia Plumbing Code §1003.3.1
“A grease interceptor or automatic grease removal device shall be required to receive the drainage from fixtures and equipment with greaseladen waste located in food preparation areas, such as in restaurants, hotel kitchens, hospitals, school kitchens, bars, factory cafeterias and clubs. Fixtures and equipment shall include pot sinks, prerinse sinks; soup kettles or similar devices; wok stations; floor drains or sinks into which kettles are drained; automatic hood wash units and dishwashers without prerinse sinks.”
Interceptors “shall receive waste only from fixtures and equipment that allow fats, oils or grease to be discharged.” Individual dwelling units are exempt (§1003.3.4). Where space prevents replacing an interceptor, additional units may go “on or above the floor and upstream of an existing grease interceptor.”
How big: §§1003.3.5 and 1003.3.7
Hydromechanical (indoor) interceptors are sized to the ASME, CSA or PDI standards and must have the grease retention capacity in Table 1003.3.5.1: at 10 gallons per minute flow-through, 20 pounds of grease; at 20 gpm, 40 pounds; at 50 gpm, 100 pounds; above 100 gpm, double the flow rating. A flow-control device is required so flow “does not exceed the rated flow” (§1003.3.5.2). Gravity (outdoor) interceptors are sized “by multiplying the peak drain flow into the interceptor in gallons per minute by a retention time of 30 minutes” (§1003.3.7). A numbering caution for anyone reading the code: in the 2021 Virginia edition the hydromechanical section is 1003.3.5; 1003.3.4 is the dwelling exemption.
Additives: §1003.3.3
“Systems that discharge emulsifiers, chemicals or enzymes to grease interceptors shall be prohibited.” The only dispensing systems allowed are those that “dispense microbes for the enhancement of aerobic bioremediation.” Virginia’s one amendment in this chapter (13VAC5-63-320 ¶25) adds, for food waste disposers, that “emulsifiers, chemicals, enzymes, and bacteria shall not discharge into the food waste disposer.” Why →
Maintenance: §1003.10
“Access shall be provided to each interceptor and separator for service and maintenance. Interceptors and separators shall be maintained by periodic removal of accumulated grease, scum, oil, or other floating substances and solids deposited in the interceptor or separator.”
“Periodic.” No number of days, no percentage. The interval is left to the locality, or to you.
The health code: 12VAC5-421
Virginia’s food regulations say drainage systems “including grease traps” must be “designed and installed as specified under 12VAC5-421-2180 A” — that is, “according to law” (§2505) — and that “if used, a grease trap shall be located to be easily accessible for cleaning” (§2530). That is the whole of the health department’s grease rule. No inspector in Virginia can cite a food code section requiring pumping every so many days, because there is none.
DEQ and the civil-penalty schedule
The state’s sewage collection standards require interceptor basins to be “routinely maintained, including the periodic, scheduled removal of accumulations of oil and grease” and sized to “two gallons of volume for each pound of grease received” or three hours’ retention (9VAC25-790-460 E) — a design standard binding the utility, not a permit rule for your kitchen. And the Code of Virginia lets any locality adopt “a uniform schedule of civil penalties for violations of fats, oils, and grease standards”: not more than $100 for the first summons, $150 for each additional, $3,000 total for one series of violations, each day a separate violation (§15.2-2122(10)(d)–(e)).
What the counties add
Everything above applies in Richmond, Henrico, Chesterfield and Hanover alike. The differences are in what each adds on top. Side by side →