Is this illegal?

[bobobb.livejournal.com]

I was walking in the Davis Square area and saw a man from a industrial cleaning company dumping his cleaning waste down the street sewer from his van -- it was pretty stinky.  I'm assuming this is illegal because when he saw me he packed up his truck and took off in a hurry.   When I looked on the city's web page I couldn't find anything about illegal dumping, so maybe I'm wrong.  I assumed that the street sewers go into the mystic river -- is this true?  Please fill me in.  I have his licence plate number so I'll report it if in fact it is illegal dumping -- but again who do you report this to?

Comments

[ron_newman]

Please do report it, that's very illegal.

[fanw.livejournal.com]

I don't know, but I'd call 311 and find out who to report this to. Sounds pretty sketchy to me!

[srakkt.livejournal.com]

Call 311 and report it? Did you get the name of the company and maybe the number of the truck?

If it's not illegal then it's hardly an issue, and the folks at 311 will know. if it is illegal, then you're getting it handled.

[beezy515.livejournal.com]

Yes, please report this.

[bobobb.livejournal.com]

Called it in -- apparently it is very illegal. Thanks for the help!

PS The company was called Serv Pro -- maybe don't hire them if you need your house/business cleaned?

[jspazzer.livejournal.com]

Appropriately, their slogan appears to be "Like it never even happened"
http://www.servpro.com/

[ruthling.livejournal.com]

Thank you for reporting this. Yes, storm sewers discharge, usually completely untreated, into a local waterbody. The Mystic has enough problems and doesn't need random guys throwing anything from soap to industrial waste down into it.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_mattt/]

I'd be very surprised if it was what most people consider industrial waste. I'm not exonerating them, but I doubt they would be working with anything other than cleaning solutions and maybe some organic solvents.

[ron_newman]

And yes, anything dumped in a Somerville storm sewer is eventually going to end up in the Mystic River, or in Alewife Brook, which drains into the Mystic. It's bad enough when the stuff being dumped is just dogshit, but even worse if it's some industrial chemical.

[cityofbeige.livejournal.com]

Just about every storm drain I've seen in Somerville has a plaque over it saying that it drains directly to the Charles or Mystic River.

[spaz-i-mota.livejournal.com]

ServPro is a huge company. I'm not sure why that makes it more disturbing to me, but it does.

[m00n.livejournal.com]

Because it means this is probably company policy all over the place, rather than just an isolated incident.

[islandofzilan.livejournal.com]

how do you know what was being dumped was an industrial solvent?

There are alot of natural solvents that can smell pretty bad too...

[ron_newman]

Then they probably shouldn't be dumped into the storm sewer either.

[srakkt.livejournal.com]

At no point did the OP assert that what was being dumped was an industrial solvent, and regardless of this fact, dumping into stormdrains is illegal, even if it's sugar and spice and everything nice.

[firepail.livejournal.com]

Even more disturbing, if this person was doing this blatantly in broad daylight--they have probably done it before.

[mark0429.livejournal.com]

ServPro is a huge company, but regional offices such as the one doing the illegal dumping are locally owned private franchises. And, knowing someone who owns their own franchise out of state, I am relatively certain that if this were to get reported up the ladder to corporate, they would handle it.

That's not to say that the local authorities should not be involved--they absolutely should--but I think that if the corporate offices became aware of this problem, they would also be equipped to deal with the offending franchisee/employee.

[spaz-i-mota.livejournal.com]

probably a coincidence..but the storm drains around day/orchard are giving off an exceptional STINK lately.

[srakkt.livejournal.com]

That was me. I'm sorry... I couldn't hold it any longer.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_mattt/]

What kind of smell was it?

Was it a rotten egg type smell? Or a chemical solvent type smell?

i heart stormwater

[c011een.livejournal.com]

yes, that is very very very illegal. way to go getting the license plate. you are an environmental nancy drew!

storm drains are for rain. you should never ever dump anything into them. pet waste making its way into storm drains is a major problem, so pick up after your pet and don't throw poo into the storm drain.

some stormwater is treated and some of it is not. even more fascinating/disturbing, in many areas in and around boston (including parts of sommerville), we have combined sewer systems. this means that stormwater gets mixed with sewage and it all gets treated. that's all fine and dandy until we get a big storm and the system can't handle all that water, so a bunch of it (raw sewage included!) gets dumped into the charles and mystic rivers.

ok, my rant is over.

Re: i heart stormwater

[srakkt.livejournal.com]

Interestingly, raw sewage getting diluted by bodies of other water is a useful (if slow) way to treat it because the harmful stuff doesn't survive well outside a digestive tract unless it's in a nice dense clump of poo, though ideally it shouldn't be done in waterways.

Re: i heart stormwater

[bobobb.livejournal.com]

well, if I'm not studying for my quals at least I'm making myself useful ;)

Keen detective here....

[ryanwanger.livejournal.com]

Like it was mentioned, this is a big company, but if you google "servpro dumping" you get this:

http://www.dep.state.fl.us/secretary/news/2005/01/0114_01.htm

And #2 is this thread. Ooops! Google is amazing.

[jspazzer.livejournal.com]

New corporate slogan: "Like it never even happened, unless the cops or bobobb are watching, in which case it is hard to deny that it happened."

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