Won't You Be MY Neighbor?

If you ever do anything that you don't want reported to the authorities, say "NO" quickly. Even if you just might look guilty, but are in fact a law-abiding citizen, say "no". I WILL REPORT YOU!

The folks in this picture live a block away from me. These pictures are taken from my front window.

At approximately 3:40 pm, the guy in the truck ran a hose from a large tank in the back of the truck to the storm drain. Then he started up an engine that began pumping whatever was in the tank into the drain. I watched for a couple of minutes, quite appalled. I was undecided as to what I should do.

Perhaps he was emptying a tank of water? People don't really just illegally dump hazardous materials into storm drains, right? Not on their own block. Not in the middle of the day. And they have a Jesus Fish on the back of the truck! Conclusion: They must not be doing anything wrong.

But wait... These are the folks who water their lawn in the afternoon until the street is a river. Strike one against environmental awareness. AND this is the woman who put my broken sewing machine back in front of my house even though I told her she could have it, but I thought it was broken. Strike two. My decision was made quite easy when the young gentleman in the truck started forcing whatever was in the tank out with a big stick. Big strike three. Water does not need that kind of help. Conclusion: Call the Sacramento Dept. of Water Resources Stormwater Quality Program.

My call was answered quickly and my report was made. Unfortunately, the Hazardous Materials division was off for Columbus Day. I was told to call the Fire Department. They would come out to assess the situation and call HazMat in if needed.

The call to the Fire Department was quick and painless. They took my name, phone # and address and said they would send someone right out. I was pretty surprised when, 10 minutes later, two fire engines with their lights on drove up the street!

The dumpers quickly stopped what the were doing when the engines pulled up right in front of them. Lots of questions were asked and phone calls made. The fire people used flashlights to look down the storm drain.

About half an hour later, an investigator pulled up. Shortly after him came a huge HazMat truck, another fire engine, an Incident Report vehicle, a county truck of some sort and two Sheriff cars.

The street was blocked off to all traffic and the three closest manholes were opened. One was quickly closed back up, but the other 2 were surrounded by cones. The various agencies involved each took a ton of pictures and questioned the dumpers. The HazMat crew lowered a cup on a pole into the manholes and then tested what they brought back up.

After about an hour & a half (at 5:21 pm), the Sheriff cars, fire and HazMat trucks began to slowly depart the scene one-by-one. Just the Incident Report vehicle and the county truck remained, each with one man. They periodically checked the storm drains through the open manholes with their flashlights. At 6:15 pm, the Incident Report truck also left.

As we speak, (6:31 pm) only the county employee and his truck are left. The manholes are still open and surrounded by cones. His lights are still flashing. He is making a lot of phone calls between peering down into the manholes.

For all the flashing lights and commotion, the incident ended pretty anti-climatically. No yelling or screaming. No one was cuffed. I think my neighbors may have gotten a ticket, but they seemed pretty jovial about the whole thing. Even now, they keep coming out of their house to chat with the guy in the truck.

I guess I will never know exactly what they were dumping. So I leave it up to you to decide... Jennifer Watson, nosy neighbor/public nuisance or environmental hero? ;)