Armed EPA agents raid plumbers office

Armed personnel from the Environmental Protection Agency raided The Rooter Guys on Tracey Road Thursday morning.

"I have never seen that before," he said. "These guys were wearing bulletproof vests with 'federal agent' written across the back."

Must have been smuggling kids through sewer pipes or manufacturing meth.

Or just some poo dumped down the drain:

The agents are investigating a possible illegal discharge, according Dan Redline, regional administrator of the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality.

Link

Every government employee gets to play soldier these days. Careful tearing off that mattress tag. SWAT incoming.

More on EPA's Illicit Discharges:

Illicit connections may be intentional or may be unknown to the business owner and often are due to the connection of floor drains to the storm sewer system.

epa.gov

Section 14-16 covers enforcement. Step one is a written letter. Step two is appeal. Step three is the SWAT team I guess:

If the violation has not been corrected pursuant to the requirements set forth in the Notice of Violation, or, in the event of an appeal, __ within days of the decision of the municipal authority upholding the decision of the authorized enforcement agency, then representatives of the authorized enforcement agency shall enter upon the subject private property and are authorized to take any and all measures necessary to abate the violation and/or restore the property. It shall be unlawful for any person, owner, agent or person in possession of any premises to refuse to allow the government agency or designated contractor to enter upon the premises for the purposes set forth above.

The EPA guys were pissed cause the rooter guys know how to use the toilet like big boys.

If the rooter guys would just poop in hallways, the EPA would leave them alone.

originally posted by: thisguyrighthere

Armed personnel from the Environmental Protection Agency raided The Rooter Guys on Tracey Road Thursday morning.

The agents are investigating a possible illegal discharge, according Dan Redline, regional administrator of the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality.

And this requires armed personnel with body armor?

Meanwhile back at the EPA head offices they just bare it and "discharge" right in the hallways. Who is going to storm the EPA offices and investigate their illegal discharging?

a reply to: SpaDe_

I'd do it but I need better hip waders. I've heard the $hhh is deep there!

Without reading any of the article, I'm wondering why the plumbing company could have possibly been raided.
Two things come to mind.
1. Improper disposal of used products and or waste...or..
2. lead and oakum parts and accessories.
We all know what used products are, old toilets, urinals, contaminated pipe..
Lead and oakum is the old style of joining pipes, instead of compression fittings or glue.
The cast iron pipes would be joined and then lead poured into the joint.
We know what a stiffy the EPA has for lead nowadays, can't let the public have any of that "highly toxic lead" now...
Hint, I have been using and smelting lead for going on a half century now.
If you use proper ventilation and wash your hands every now and then, lead is no real danger.

(Edit)
Article says "illegal discharge", covered under my speculation #1 improper disposal.
Most probably dumping septic refuse of grease trap refuse in the sewer.
Both of these forms of waste have to be taken to a certified waste center usually run by the county or city.
The officials would know easily if this was happening, say you do 100 grease trap jobs and never visit a disposal site, that kind of screams "I'm avoiding paying dump fees".

All in all, this would be a good thing.
The boys and girls who want to dress up in fear gear and point their guns like Starsky and Hutch get to!!
And a crooked company gets nabbed, too bad the EPA did not aim higher and nab one of the real bad corporations that make this whole scenario look like child's play.

From the OP's source:

Todd Schaffer, an employee with The Rooter Guys, said the EPA came in and took all of the employees' names and contact information, but he wasn't interviewed.

"They just let us go back to work," he said. "We have to feed our kids, too."

So scary for them huh? How dare this federal agency ensure that the federal laws are being followed and to take names without even detaining anyone or interviewing them.
/endsarcasm

I have a feeling that the sentiment would be the same here if any law enforcement agency was involved in the investigation of federal laws possibly being broken.

So anytime law enforcement serves a warrant it's an incursion by SWAT?

There was a warrant?
No guns were drawn?
Nobody was roughed up?
No property was damaged?
These federal agents were there along with Kootenai County Sherrif's deputies?

The illegal dumping the company is being investigated for could easily be something like pumping out raw sewage into a forest or waterway. This is basically an excuse to attack the EPA. The EPA is a favorite target among conservatives and those associated with the LP. There's a lot of very wealthy men who don't like being fined for their own illegal dumping.

a reply to: thisguyrighthere

What happened to a letter, phone call or a knock at the door?

Govt: "Can I please come in?"
Slave: "No".
Govt: "Ok, no problem, let me leave this letter with you. It contains our concerns and the reason for our visit".

Slave training.

The slaves must be conditioned to accept government force and violence as the norm.

Hate to tell ya this, but we still use lead and oakum joints in some plumbing applications. It is most likely an illegal dumping of something toxic, in which case I say good going EPA.

a reply to: thisguyrighthere

Sorry, but where does it say a SWAT team was used?

It just said armed officers, doesn't even say if they had their weapons out, just that they were armed.

Likely the town found sewage in the storm drain system and plugged it using something like cured-in-place pipe (CIPP)

Then this company was called by the homeowner to clear there lines and punched out the plug not knowing it went into the storm drain system.

en.wikipedia.org...

The town then got mad and called in the EPA.

The town never likely never knew or contacted the homeowner that he had a problem.

The plumbers likely also did not know there was a problem with the home owners system because the homeowners were never told by the town.

The EPA does not care they just want someone to take to court to look good.
the plumbing company was picked because they have more money then the home owners to pay big fines.

I guess the EPA arrived prepared to blow the crap outta things if needed.

I think I liked it better when places like the EPA had to call the US Marshals or other supporting agency ..and that supporting agency could laugh at them and tell them they were being total morons when the need arose.

Now they just decide they feel like storming the crapper like troops across the beaches of Normandy. The potty police.

What a noble pursuit in life. They must be proud....

a reply to: Wrabbit2000


Anyone notice that EPA armed actions are ocurring in the most independent States,Idaho,Wyoming,Montana,etc.?

a reply to: Sunwolf

Mere coincidence...I'm sure. They just happen to be states with lots of open areas the EPA has particular interest in, that's all.

We can assume states like Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire and others are just ducky for full compliance in fact, since we don't hear much from some regions...now that you mention it.

just wow a raid (swat or not) for possible illegal dumping? that is completely ridicules, seriously were the expecting ARMED RESISTANCE? they didn't need a raid they needed perhaps a couple offices to nicely knock at the door, identify themselves and inform the people that they and EPA were going to be investigating. there was no need for more than that. a raid with multiple offices is not called for in this case at all, it's not like they were entering a gang drug lab where armed resistance might be awaiting them. this overuse of power for minor things is getting FAR out of hand. if anything it may start causing people to over react and fearing (rightfully) for their lives just start shooting down these thugs, in an case of preemptive self defense.

how did they know that they might be dumping illegally anyway? i'm serious about that question. one wal-mart shop i worked at had been dumping used car oil into the sewage system for years with no one the wiser. it wasn't done intentionally. everyone just assumed it was being stolen since home office didn't want to spend like $20 to buy a lock for the pump access port. we must have dumped hundreds of thousands of gallons of used oil before it was found out. the only reason it was caught at all was because the company that picked up the oil was annoyed because they were missing out on profit since there was rarely any oil to pick up, and after repeated requests it was not locked up, so they called the government. implying that our tank must be leaking into the ground. turned out it was not being stolen but due to faulty pipe installation (which is what you get when you only hire the cheapest company), the pipe to the tank had gotten blocked up and the oil interceptor system designed to remove oil from the floor drains and into the tank worked in reverse and sent all the used oil into the sewage system. did we deserve to be raided which the way cops are today would have put a lot of civilian lives at risk? all that happened was a crew of people came in with equipment to check things out. no police were there at all.

a reply to: generik

Such an emphasis on the word raid.
Like a user stated above:

It just said armed officers, doesn't even say if they had their weapons out, just that they were armed.

Also from the OP's source:

Todd Schaffer, an employee with The Rooter Guys, said the EPA came in and took all of the employees' names and contact information, but he wasn't interviewed.

"They just let us go back to work," he said. "We have to feed our kids, too."

Such a scary raid isnt it?


Also I feel it needs to be said here, but I just reread the OP source, just to make sure I wasnt missing anything. And I did miss something.

I found out that we executed a search warrant at that location," said EPA spokesman Mark MacIntyre

They were carrying out a search warrant. Search warrants are carried out by law enforcement officers, who are armed.
I guess its just me, but common sense seems to dictate that this is really a non issue here. I guess everyone would feel better if armed Marshals or the FBI carried out the warrant then...

All joking aside, why the hell do EPA agents need guns?

I looked up how many died in the line of duty and this is what the EPA site states:

In the 27 years since EPA's criminal investigators were given law enforcement powers and began carrying a badge and gun, three agents have made the ultimate sacrifice. Those three are special agents Dave DeLitta, Bill Parr and Tim Fidel. OCEFT's losses over the past three decades equal that of the Capitol Police Department, an agency that is nine times its size.

You then learn that DeLitta was killed in an armed robbery having nothing to do with an investigation.

Parr died of food poisoning overseas.

And Fidel died of a heart attack.

So, again, why do they need guns?