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Are your neighbors polluting? Call new toll-free hotline
December 30th, 2008, 2:40 pm · 25 Comments · posted by Pat Brennan, science, environment editor
The neighbor is pouring used motor oil into the storm drain. And the house painter down the block? He’s using the same water channel to clean out his equipment.
Both of them are breaking the law, but it’s not quite worth calling to 911. Orange County’s public works department offers an alternative: 1-877-89-SPILL (1-877-897-7455).
“We’re not trying to replace 911, but we’re trying to take some of the burden off fire, police, sheriff — something that deserves a response, but not by fire or police,” said Grant Sharp, the county’s stormwater program manager.
The service has existed since 2002, but the county recently upgraded to a toll-free hotline with a number and letter combination thought to be easy to remember.
Sharp said the hotline gets about 90 calls a year — everything from excess dog droppings in flood channels to more serious hazards, such as paint and thinner being washed down the storm drain (yes, the painter was prosecuted, and paid a fine).
True emergencies should always go to 911. But neither local police nor the state Office of Emergency Services — which offers a hotline for large spills — are likely to send someone out for a small, neighborhood complaint.
The county line is answered 24/7 every day of the year by OC Watersheds during business hours or by an answering service after hours and on weekends.
“You are going to get a response no matter how small the incident is,” Sharp said.
The hotline is for almost any kind of problem associated with storm drains, flood channels, lakes or harbors, he said, and need not be related to water pollution.
“It can be a drainage problem, if tree limbs or other debris is blocking a catch basin, resulting in a large pool of water backing up into the street,” he said.
County officials would send out an inspector for some incidents, or contact the appropriate agency for others.
Pet droppings, fertilizer, pesticides, trash — a lot of it goes into the county’s storm drains, and from there into the ocean, where it contributes to near-shore pollution.
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So what number do we call when we see that the housepainter down the street cleaning equipment is here illegally, unlicensed, and not paying taxes but getting welfare?
Call on your neighbors?…yet the next scary (yet completely predictable)step of the green religion.
good to know, but 90 calls a YEAR? so let me get this straight, that’s 1 call every 4 days?
wow, great to know our taxdollars are being used effectively. and if I only had to work every 4 days for 10 minutes, I’d be happy too.
Great !!! Another way to “turn in” your neighbor. No wonder this country is filled with frightened and uncaring people…We’ve created a society that Hitler would have loved….Call in your neighbor to the authorities and no one will know it was you….Just another way that we are going to h3ll in a handbasket. BTW…I get the whole pollution angle and I agree we need to stop poluution our environment..But really …call the government to report your neighbor? Orwellian
Can we call INS too?
A harbinger of things to come. When was the last time you can think of that neighbors were encouraged to police one another and inform the authorities of transgressions? We are headed in that direction at an ever increasing pace….
kevin,
the INS will laugh at you. you see, the sad truth is that there are some laws they enforce and some they don’t. if a foreigner is in your town illegally, using the ER and pushing your premiums sky-high, or collecting government aid funded by your taxes, or driving without a license/insurance and putting your family at risk. But if neighbor John Smith is washing out his trash can and some of the water goes into the drain you can call the illegal waste cops and they’ll throw ‘em in jail and send him a stiff fine! Welcome to the upside-down society!
Perpetuating the snitch culture. Well done!
Hey Grant Sharp,
Why don’t you just fix the potholes in the roads and go light on playing the snitch your neighbor off game. Everytime it rains it flushes all the pollutants off the streets, sidewalks and lawns into the drainage system too. Stop playing big brother.
This is very bad. How could we the people of the United States of America let this stuff get out of hand. Everytime we vote another law in it creates more government jobs. The job starts out with a person working as one then we need more people. Now we need a director to over see operations, then a secretary and a crew. Sombody has to supervise the crew so we hire a supertandent that needs a supervisor. The supervisor needs a crew chief to supervise the crew that works. We need all of the people to protect the first persons job. The first persons pay is 140,000.00 per year plus benifits, the second is 90,000, the third is 70,000, the fourth is 60,000, the rest get between 30,000 to 50,000, all with benifits. This is the way a little paint spill started out. No fine will ever cover these wages. We already have Police to handle this, or we could just ask our neighbor to be a little more carefull.
Hi,
Well, this is certainly very good step taken to prevent environmental pollution… Thanks for the update…
This was a poor PR effort by the public works dept. The message: turn-in your neighbor! Great, just what we need here in Orange county.
On the other hand, people are idiots for intentionally or not allowing pesticides, chemicals, dog feces and trash to be washed away to the ocean.
Just don’t abuse it.
What is the hotline number to call to report people stealing and dumping shopping carts?
Call and tell them about the illegal with a leaf blower that’s blowing trash and dirt onto the street that’s ends up at the beach.
My neighbor’s driveway has the OC Register laying on it. That’s littering!
Good Point, OChousewife…
why are we turning on each other when the government, from our local county idiots to the state to the morons at the federal level are screwing up everything from the economy to the environment, where can I report these idiots???
Where is the accountability for the Government???? They want to be accountable all the time ….
Joe homeowner, I’m watching you.
Just go down any street in santa ana , every other house is polluting something- oil, paint etc etc etc. that place is the anus of orange county
Only in Orange County… California’s last stronghold for nutty religious fundamentalists and narrow minded social conservatives. The same breed who wet themselves with excitement over anti-environmental “political” figures like Sara Palin.
I don’t think it takes a chemist or a marine biologist to figure out that dumping hazardous chemicals into the storm drain adversely affects our ocean environment. I think it’s incredibly selfish to live your life with blinders on… I bet if your African-American neighbors were listening to Kanye West too loud at 9:00pm, you hypocrites wouldn’t hesitate to call the Irvine Police Department.
Our children are being educated in environmental issues, the awareness is spreading, and thankfully the stone-age philosophy of yesterday’s Conservative Orange County is slowly dying off.
My children will breathe clean air, drink clean water, and know what a whale looks like if I have anything to say about it.
All hail the Green Religion.
============================
“Water and air, the two essential fluids on which all life depends, have become global garbage cans.”
- Jacques Cousteau
“If the end doesn’t justify the means, then what does?”
- Edward Abbey
Snitch on your neighbor for dumping diluted water based paint? (I dump mine in the grass). And we thought Stalin and Hitler were dead.
What about the clown house next door polluting my neighborhood with 12 cars, half of which leak oil in the street for a 4 bdrm house?
Stalin? Hitler? Aren’t we going a little overboard here? These despots killed tens of millions of people. The county simply wants to educate people that pollutants that go down the storm drain go straight to the ocean.
My guess is that the guy pouring paint (or motor oil, or whatever) down the storm drain probably thinks it goes to the sanitation district for treatment. If someone comes out to tell him that it flows untreated to the ocean and he and his kids will be swimming in it this summer, maybe he’ll change his behavior.
If we don’t educate, how will people learn?
How exactly is that a bad thing?
THANK YOU “Education Goes a Long Way”! I can’t believe the stupid, STUPID comments the first 10 people made. Let’s consider that South Orange County is a tourist destination, you’d think that these people might want to keep the environment clean so our children not only profit from it but so does our local economy. BOY, IT SURE IS NICE NOT SWIMMING IN A PAINT SATURATED BACTERIA FILLED CESSPOOL!! I’m sure these are the same people who get upset about government waste and ever increasing bureaucracy but you ask them to participate to cut costs and THEY FREAK OUT!!
They’re not saying “Snitch on you neighbor” like that’s the only option. Go ahead and be neighborly but if you have difficult neighbors or a language barrier or you don’t know what to say then call the county’s number!
Hey Racists! Lighten up on the Mexicans! Remember, we were here FIRST!!!
Looks like many see this as a plot toward ‘snitch on your neighbor.’ I see it as an opportunity to have the absentee owner of a neighborning duplex informed, legally, that his/her gardner are breaking the law and doing environmental damage by blowing the debris from the yard down the storm drain in front of the unit. That is what they can’t, using their blowers, blow over the low walls onto neighboring houses on either side. Try to talk to them? Awwww. . .they don’t understand da English. Think the police are going to come out and take it on? They didn’t come out when we called in active grafitti going on – have to get past the dispatchers ya know.
TThis is a joke! I emailed these people to report a neighbor dumping grass clipping together with antifreeze in our street gutter and the county only left a leaflet at their. The same neighbor did it again 3 weeks later, I emailed these guys again and they never answered my email or contact the culprit. I had to call out the city code enforcement to handle the problem..
When will the conservative morons of Orange County grow tired of their cliche, overused “green religion” slurs and global warming denial?