Water quality inspectors have the job of visiting local businesses and evaluating how they use water and to help those businesses use water more efficiently. Unfortunately, sometimes there is an obvious disregard displayed for any sort of water conservation and that business could receive a harsh penalty if not properly addressed.
The best thing a company can do is consistent review of their best management practices (BMP’s) to identify new areas of improvement in an ever changing environment.
The following are some tips and tricks to help prepare for the inevitable visit from your local water quality inspector.
Don’t have employees wash without some sort of containment:
Never let wash water run to the storm drain:
Cheap felt storm drain inserts, sometimes called “witch hats” from their appearance placed upside down in a storm drain can fill up quickly and then have to be cut in order to remove, thus spilling all the contaminated particles directly into the storm drain:
Agricultural nutrients can be very harmful if not contained in proper spill-proof pallets:
Even if there is a working wash bay, water can still escape to flow freely to the lowest spot as shown here:
These are just a few of the tell tail signs that water is being contaminated. Knowing these “red flags” will help better prepare for an unannounced visit from a water quality control inspector.