A portable toilet business is causing a stink in Baldwin Park. 5 Star Sanitation—which claims itself service provider to the Rose Bowl—apparently has no dumping spot for the human feces it collects, and in fact no business license at all. The company’s been storing feces in barrels and illegally dumping it to a clean-out line that’s backed up to parking property and floods another storefront.
County officials say 5 Star Sanitation has been illegally dumping human waste--literally in the Baldwin Park industrial business complex where it's located. The 5 Star Sanitation website states “ We offer a "Green" environmental alternative to meet the ever-changing demands of the marketplace.”—apparently that ‘alternative’ was a little too ‘green’, being pumped into city clean-out lines instead of legally taken to dumping facilities.
The owner of a neighboring skateboard shop--who made the complaint--says illegal dumping by 5 Star Sanitation has caused his business toilet to overflow, spewing and flooding feces physically inside of his skate shop business. "It's killing us," said Kurtis Beckstrom, owner of Covert Skate Shop.
The owner of 5 Star Sanitation, Alejandro Trejo, denied any wrongdoing during his year at the site on Badillo Street. The portable toilet company claims to do business all over the San Gabriel Valley in Southern California—featuring pictures of its portable toilets outside the Rose Bowl, on the company website.
Beckstrom had recently tried to clean out a pipe by extracting waste because the owners of the property had been having problems with a sewer line, even causing toilet overflows at his own business.
5 Star Sanitation is also accused of dumping human feces waste in a parking lot. County health workers said there is evidence that the waste had also spread onto the parking lot near where the clean-out pipe is located.
A hearing is scheduled for next week regarding the 5 Star ‘Sanitation’ investigation, they said.
"We've got to talk to them about their procedures about how they're cleaning out the waste from these (toilets) to see if they're compliant with state law," said Alfonso Medina, director of the County of Los Angeles Public Health - Environment Protection Bureau.
The county had no prior complaints against 5 Star Sanitation, Medina said.
Not that the fact would be relevant, considering 5 Star Sanitation apparently has no business license whatsoever. Which brings to the forefront the next issue: what was management of the Rose Bowl doing—utilizing a sanitation company without even checking to see whether the company simply has a business license.
Baldwin Park code enforcement officials responded have immediately ordered 5 Star Sanitation to be shut down.
"First of all, they don't have a business license, but even if they tried, it would not be granted," said Marc Castagnola, Baldwin Park community development manager who oversees the code enforcement department. "That (type of) business is not permitted in the city."
Well, it’s great someone noticed the business existed in the city for a year—without anyone from the city noticing that the type of business isn’t supposed to exist within the city. Good to know that the City of Baldwin Park is so “on the ball”.
County officials suspect 5 Star was illegally dumping human waste.
"What we found is that they [the 5 Star Sanitation company] were attempting to remove the waste from the (portable toilets) and put it into a clean-out pipe," Medina said. The clean-out pipe provides access to a sewer in order to clear blockages but is not main access to a sewer.
Trejo said the complaint to the city—about the dumping of human feces--is result of a longstanding tension between him and the owner of the skate shop. Good thing that tension existed, or apparently 5 Star Sanitation would have continued to illegally dump human waste into a clean-out pipe that also contaminates a parking lot.
"The person that reported it, he has something against us," Trejo, owner of 5 Star Sanitation, said. "We tried to do something good by trying to unclog something, but it backfired."
Let’s see, that “something” you were trying to unclog would be a clean-out line where you were illegally dumping human feces, that became clogged by the human feces and is dumping into another business and a parking lot and contains toxins that can kill a person. You’re additionally operating a company without a business license, and a business type that is not even allowed in the city where you’re illegally operating.
Code enforcement officials began looking into the business after complaints from Beckstrom, the skate shop owner.
Beckstrom says he arrived this week, to find his business flooded in waste and liquid a half-inch deep—and that the flooding of human waste is the third occurrence.
He also complained about barrels of human waste—left sitting behind a fenced area on the property. It's affecting his business, he said.
Gee, how curious—that barrels of human waste would affect business.
The owner of the industrial business complex, Chona Siapno, said the sewer issues began before 5 Star Sanitation moved in about a year ago. Apparently the owner—accepting rent for the business space—didn’t bother checking for a business license either.
Neighboring business owners say that while they haven’t been experiencing problems with their toilets, sewage overflow in the parking lot is noticeable—and the foul odor is noticeable.
Human feces and waste contains strains of the notorious E. coli bacteria that’s toxic to humans.
Trejo claims he's been trying to move his 5 Star Sanitation business out of the industrial complex--ever since he discovered it was not permitted within city zoning codes. Of course he might have found that out quicker, had he obtained a business license legally—or perhaps, of course, that’s the reason he didn’t obtain a business license.
"Obviously, I knew unfortunately that we couldn't get a business license, but as far as illegally dumping, I know better, I've been in the industry for a long time."
The Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County provide locations to dispose of human waste—which carry a fee. Apparently 5 Star Sanitation doesn’t pay to dispose of the human feces it collects—which raises the question as to where all of the Rose Bowl human waste went, down a clean-out pipe, still stored in barrels, or flooding into parking lots—along with its E. coli.
Rose Bowl: you should be ashamed, for not even bothering to ensure your contractor has even a business license, let alone information pertaining to actual facility where the waste will be dumped.