Last updated: May 2026. Every restaurant, commercial kitchen, food-processing facility, and institutional cafeteria in Northwest Arkansas operates under three layers of FOG (Fats, Oils & Grease) regulation: federal pretreatment rules administered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, state-level oversight from the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality and the Arkansas Department of Health, and a city-by-city patchwork of municipal grease ordinances enforced through local water utilities. This guide explains all three layers, the inspection checklist your local sewer authority is using, and what happens when a kitchen fails.
This page is published and maintained by Ozark Grease Pros, the only licensed grease-recycling and processing facility in Northwest Arkansas. It is a regulatory reference, not a sales document — if you need help with the inspection itself, our team can be reached at 479-448-7755.
FOG is the regulatory shorthand for Fats, Oils & Grease — the byproduct of food preparation that solidifies inside sewer pipes, restricts flow, and is the leading cause of Sanitary Sewer Overflows (SSOs) in the United States. The EPA’s authority over FOG comes from the General Pretreatment Regulations, codified at 40 CFR Part 403, which require any non-domestic discharger that could disrupt the publicly owned treatment works (POTW) to install and maintain pretreatment equipment. For food service, that pretreatment device is a grease trap or grease interceptor.
Two federal prohibitions apply to every Arkansas restaurant whether the local city has its own ordinance or not:
Grease that solidifies in a city sewer line is, by federal definition, an obstruction. That is the legal hook every local FOG ordinance hangs on.
Arkansas does not have a single state-level grease ordinance. Instead, three agencies hold overlapping authority:
Agency | Authority | What They Inspect |
|---|---|---|
Arkansas DEQ (Water Division) | Delegated NPDES program under 40 CFR 403. Enforces pretreatment indirectly through approved POTW programs. | POTW compliance with their own pretreatment ordinance — which then flows down to the restaurant. |
Arkansas Dept. of Health | Plumbing Code (based on IPC 2018, Section 1003) — requires grease interceptors at all food service establishments. | Sizing, installation, accessibility, and maintenance records during routine restaurant inspections. |
Local Water Utility / POTW | Operates the sewer system. Holds the day-to-day FOG enforcement authority delegated by DEQ. | Trap pumping frequency, manifests, 25% rule compliance, and discharge sampling if requested. |
The practical consequence: the inspector knocking on your kitchen door is almost always from the city water utility, but they are enforcing rules that originate at the EPA. A restaurant in Fayetteville and a restaurant in Siloam Springs are theoretically operating under the same federal standard — but the inspection cadence, manifest format, and penalty structure look very different city to city.
The following table summarizes the FOG enforcement authority for each city Ozark Grease Pros serves. Pumping intervals are minimums under typical city ordinances — the EPA’s 25% rule (covered below) is the binding standard and often requires more frequent service.
City | Enforcement Authority | Typical Pumping Interval | Manifest Required |
|---|---|---|---|
Siloam Springs | Siloam Springs Water Utility | 90 days | Yes |
Gentry | Gentry Public Works | 90–120 days | Yes |
Springdale | Springdale Water Utilities | 90 days | Yes |
Fayetteville | Fayetteville Water & Sewer | 90 days (FOG program) | Yes — uploaded |
Bentonville | Bentonville Utility Dept. | 90 days | Yes |
Rogers | Rogers Water Utilities | 90 days | Yes |
Bella Vista | Bella Vista POA Water | 90–120 days | Yes |
Centerton | Centerton Water Dept. | 90–120 days | Yes |
Lowell | Lowell Water Dept. | 90 days | Yes |
Farmington | Farmington Public Works | 90–120 days | Yes |
Verify current requirements with your specific water utility before relying on any published schedule — ordinances are updated periodically, and some utilities tighten the standard during summer enforcement sweeps. Ozark Grease Pros maintains current copies of every NWA municipal ordinance and can confirm requirements for your facility — call 479-448-7755.
The single most important rule for FOG compliance is not a calendar interval. It is the 25% Rule, drawn from EPA pretreatment guidance and adopted into virtually every approved municipal FOG ordinance in Arkansas.
THE 25% RULE — PLAIN ENGLISH A grease trap or interceptor must be pumped whenever the combined volume of accumulated grease and settled solids reaches 25% of the trap’s total liquid volume — regardless of how recently it was last serviced. A 1,000-gallon interceptor with 250 gallons of grease and solids has hit the threshold. It must be pumped. The 90-day interval on your service contract does not override this rule. |
Why the rule exists: above 25%, the trap loses retention time. Wastewater moves through too fast for the grease to separate, and FOG passes through into the sanitary sewer. The trap exists, but stops functioning as pretreatment. From the inspector’s perspective, an over-25% trap is the same as no trap at all.
Practical implication: high-volume kitchens — fryer-heavy fast food, full-service casual dining with a busy line — frequently hit 25% well before 90 days. Quick-service breakfast operations and low-grease menus can occasionally stretch beyond 90 days but will still be required to pump on the city’s minimum interval. The right answer is measurement, not assumption: pump-truck operators measure depth with a sounding stick and document the percentage on the manifest. Every Ozark Grease Pros manifest includes a measured grease-and-solids depth and the percentage at the time of service.
Use this checklist before any scheduled health department or water utility visit. Each item is something an inspector in Northwest Arkansas will verify on site.
Item
What 'Pass' Looks Like
Trap visible, accessible, lid intact
Lid can be lifted by inspector without tools or moving equipment
Most recent manifest available on site
Dated within the city's pumping interval; physical copy or app screenshot.
Six (6) most recent manifests on file
Demonstrates a service pattern, not a one-off pump.
Manifests show licensed transporter
Hauler license number and disposal facility named on every manifest.
Disposal facility named is licensed
Discharge facility must be permitted — Ozark Grease Pros is the only one in NWA.
Measured grease/solids percentage logged
Manifests should show depth measurement and % at time of pump.
No visible grease in floor drains or trap lid seal
Indicates pumping cadence and trap integrity.
Drain lines into the trap not bypassed
Three-compartment sinks and dishwashers must drain through trap.
Employee FOG training documented
Training log with dates and signatures — required in some cities.
Cooking oil collection bin secured
Locked bin from a licensed UCO collector — separate from grease trap waste.
Enforcement in Arkansas is typically progressive — first findings rarely come with the maximum penalty, but repeat findings escalate quickly. The schedule below reflects the common pattern across NWA municipal FOG programs:
Finding | Typical First Response | Repeat / Severe Response |
|---|---|---|
No manifest on file | Written notice of violation; 14–30 days to produce records. | Daily fines ($100–$500/day) until manifests are produced or service confirmed. |
Trap exceeds 25% | Notice + pump-out required within 7 days. | Surcharge fees + mandated quarterly inspections at owner expense. |
Trap bypassed | Notice + immediate corrective plumbing required. | Sewer service termination authority invoked; permit referral to ADEQ. |
Repeated SSO traced to facility | Investigation; clean-up cost-recovery from owner. | Civil penalty up to $25,000/day per 40 CFR §403.8; potential criminal referral. |
Illicit dumping (storm drain, ditch) | Immediate cease-and-desist; ADEQ notification. | Class A misdemeanor referral under Arkansas Water and Air Pollution Control Act. |
The cost-recovery exposure is often more punishing than the fine schedule. A sewer overflow traced to one restaurant can include city remediation costs, line-jetting charges, manhole cleanup, and reporting fees — frequently in the five-figure range before any fine is added.
Northwest Arkansas drains into two of the most heavily regulated watersheds in the south-central United States. Untreated grease that escapes the sanitary sewer enters surface water through SSOs, then moves downstream into systems already under significant nutrient and BOD load.
BOD (Biochemical Oxygen Demand) is the technical metric. One gallon of un-pretreated cooking grease can carry a BOD load equivalent to thousands of gallons of normal sanitary wastewater. Multiplied by the restaurant count across NWA, the cumulative effect is significant — and is why municipal FOG programs in the region have tightened, not loosened, over the past decade.
What proper pretreatment + licensed processing actually does, end-to-end: grease is captured at the restaurant trap, pumped by a licensed transporter, transported under manifest to a permitted disposal facility (Ozark Grease Pros), where the oils are separated and routed to recycling — typically biofuel feedstock or rendered tallow — and the remaining water is treated to discharge standards. Nothing untreated enters the watershed. That is the chain of custody Arkansas regulators are protecting.
Reporters covering FOG enforcement, sewer overflows, restaurant compliance, watershed protection, or biofuel feedstock in Northwest Arkansas are welcome to use the facts on this page with attribution. The following can be cited directly:
Spokesperson contact: Ozark Grease Pros — 479-448-7755. Facility located at 930 East Jefferson, Siloam Springs, AR 72761. Site visits available by appointment.
Under the EPA’s 25% rule — adopted by virtually every Northwest Arkansas water utility — a grease trap or interceptor must be pumped whenever combined grease and solids reach 25% of the trap’s total liquid volume. Most NWA city ordinances also set a maximum interval of 90 days regardless of measurement, with some smaller cities allowing 120 days for low-volume kitchens. The binding standard is whichever comes first.
Enforcement happens at the local water utility level. Siloam Springs Water Utility, Springdale Water Utilities, Fayetteville Water & Sewer, Bentonville Utility Department, Rogers Water Utilities, Bella Vista POA Water, and the equivalent departments in Gentry, Centerton, Lowell, and Farmington each operate their own FOG programs. They enforce ordinances delegated from the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, which in turn implements federal pretreatment standards under 40 CFR Part 403.
The 25% rule states that a grease interceptor must be pumped whenever the combined volume of floating grease and settled solids equals 25% of the trap’s total liquid volume. Above 25%, the trap loses the hydraulic retention time needed to separate FOG from wastewater and stops working as pretreatment. The rule originates in EPA pretreatment guidance and is incorporated into approved municipal FOG ordinances.
At minimum: the six most recent service manifests, each showing the date of service, the licensed transporter’s name and license number, the receiving disposal facility, the volume removed, and (best practice) the measured grease-and-solids percentage at the time of pumping. Several NWA cities also require documented employee FOG training and proof that the cooking oil collection bin is serviced by a licensed UCO hauler.
First violations typically result in a written Notice of Violation with a 7–30 day correction window. Repeat or severe findings escalate to per-day fines ($100–$500 in most NWA cities), surcharge fees, mandated quarterly inspections at owner expense, and ultimately sewer-service termination authority. Cases involving sanitary sewer overflows or illicit dumping can be referred to ADEQ and carry potential civil penalties up to $25,000 per day under 40 CFR §403.8, plus cost-recovery for cleanup.
No. Discharging FOG into the sanitary sewer violates the EPA General Pretreatment Regulations at 40 CFR §403.5 — both the specific prohibition on obstructive discharges and the general prohibition on causing interference. This is the entire reason pretreatment with a grease trap is mandatory in the first place. Bypassing the trap or pumping its contents into a floor drain is a serious violation and is the most common trigger for criminal referral in Arkansas FOG cases.
Ozark Grease Pros operates the only licensed grease-recycling and processing facility in Northwest Arkansas, located at 930 East Jefferson in Siloam Springs. The next-nearest permitted disposal options are in Tulsa, OK and Little Rock, AR — both significantly longer hauls. Hauling to an unpermitted location is a violation of both the hauler’s transporter permit and the discharger’s pretreatment permit.
FOG is the EPA’s term for Fats, Oils, and Grease — the byproducts of food preparation and dishwashing in commercial kitchens. FOG includes meat fats, lard, cooking oil, butter, margarine, food scraps, dairy, sauces, and dressings. It is regulated because it solidifies in sewer lines, causes Sanitary Sewer Overflows, and overwhelms treatment plants when discharged untreated.
Almost always, yes. Arkansas plumbing code (based on the International Plumbing Code, Section 1003) requires grease interceptors at all food service establishments — including limited-service operations, food trucks at fixed locations, ghost kitchens, and shared commissary spaces. The size of the required interceptor varies with fixture units and meals served, but the requirement itself rarely disappears at the small-operation end.
Two reasons. First, most of NWA drains into the Beaver Lake watershed, the drinking-water source for over 500,000 residents — FOG that bypasses pretreatment increases downstream treatment costs and source-water risk. Second, the western edge of the region (Siloam Springs, Gentry) drains into the Illinois River, an Arkansas-designated Extraordinary Resource Water subject to a bi-state nutrient agreement with Oklahoma. Both watersheds make grease control a higher-stakes regulatory matter here than in many other US regions.
Both are pretreatment devices for FOG. A ‘grease trap’ is the smaller, indoor unit — typically 20–100 gallons — installed under a sink. A ‘grease interceptor’ is the larger, outdoor in-ground unit — typically 750–2,000+ gallons — serving the whole kitchen. The 25% rule, manifest requirements, and inspection process apply to both. Sizing is determined by Arkansas plumbing code based on fixture units and meals served.
Ozark Grease Pros — 479-448-7755. We will review your current service interval against the 25% rule, verify your manifest history is complete and acceptable for your specific city, and identify any gaps before an inspector finds them. There is no charge for the compliance review.
Ozark Grease Pros will review your manifest history, verify 25% rule compliance, and identify gaps before the inspector does — no charge.
