"This fatberg is up there with the biggest we've ever seen," Rimmer said in a news release. "It's a total monster and taking a lot of manpower and machinery to remove as it's set hard."

These masses form in most major cities — in New York, for example, clearing out such blockages cost an estimated $4.65 million in 2013 — but they seem to be particularly problematic in London.

In 2015, for example, a 10-ton fatberg broke a section of the London sewer, requiring Thames Water to replace nearly 100 feet of piping, as The Washington Post's Sarah Kaplan reported.

At the time, Thames Water repair and maintenance supervisor Stephen Hunt told the Guardian, "We see blockages all the time on household sewer pipes, which are about big enough for a cricket ball to pass through, but to have this much damage on a sewer almost a meter in diameter is mind-boggling."

If only he had known what the city was in for a few years later.

The problem is so insidious in London, in fact, Thames Water "even formed a 'fatberg hit squad' to tackle the problem," as Kaplan wrote.

Of course, given that they would rather not deploy this special team, Rimmer urged everyone to be cautious when it comes to flushing.

"When it comes to preventing fatbergs, everyone has a role to play," he said. "Yes a lot of the fat comes from food outlets but the wipes and sanitary items are far more likely to be from domestic properties. The sewers are not an abyss for household rubbish."