The Corporation of Hamilton has been in meetings with both local restaurants and visiting cruise ships in an effort to reduce the amount of grease being pumped off-shore, in pipes, alongside sewage.

The Royal Gazette reported yesterday that grease has been clumping into balls with raw sewage off-shore and then rolling in to the Island's popular South Shore beaches in small, grey balls which sit on the sand.

As the grey, golf ball sized clumps of waste are a potential health risk, Government Health Officers can be forced to close off beaches or portions of beaches when they appear.

Earlier in the week a number of these grease and sewage balls were spotted at Elbow Beach although Environmental Health Officer George Simons said they might appear on any beach depending on wind direction.

While the Corporation of Hamilton is perhaps the largest source of sewage pumped off-shore outside the reef barrier - Elbow Beach and Sonesta Beach hotels have also used this system - secretary Roger Sherratt told The Royal Gazette grease interacting with the sewage is as likely to come from passing cruise ships as the outfall pipes from the city.

He said the Corporation installed a fine screen on its waste station to catch grease and solid objects and ensure they do not make their way to the ocean.

"We catch as much as we can," he said.

The sewage balls recently seen on the South Shore did not look like they came from the City sewer system, he added, but nevertheless engineers have been checking the system to see if its catching everything it can.

Mr. Sherratt said the Corporation also offers a free grease pick up service to city restaurants he added, although many do not take advantage of it.

The Corporation has also had problems with food vendors in Hamilton merely pouring used grease down the closest drain or even on trees, he said.

While there is legislation to prevent mobile vendors from dispensing of grease in that manner, it is more difficult to police restaurants, he said.

"If a restaurant is pouring grease down the drain, who is going to know?"

New restaurants are now required to install grease traps by the Health Department and Mr. Sherratt said the hope is older establishments will voluntarily comply or face similar requirements.

But cruise ships are another major source of the grease in the sewer system.

Mr. Sherratt said the ships which tie up in Hamilton feed into the same waste collection system - which is later pumped off shore - throughout the cruise ship season.

The City held meetings with the agents of various ships which frequent Hamilton, he added, to ask what substances are flowing into the system.

Mr. Sherratt said they discovered that the newer cruise ships visiting Bermuda have sophisticated on board systems which collect grease and are not contributing to the problem.

"The older ships are not so well equipped," he said. "We've asked them to institute policies to reduce the amount of grease that is going into the sewer system."

Meanwhile, an Elbow Beach spokesperson confirmed yesterday that the hotel intends to move forward with building its waste treatment plant as soon as possible.

"Elbow Beach is very conscious of our environment," said Simone Gibbons. "We're about to begin the final stages of establishing our waste treatment plant in November. We hope to have it completed by March."

Ms Gibbons said engineers from the hotel had also tested the balls which washed up on the shore this week and found them to be "oil based".