Commercial Activities

Commercial Businesses

From sweeping patios and parking lots to regularly emptying trash cans, how you run your business, impacts the City of Huntington Park, Los Angeles River, and Pacific Ocean. Help us keep them and the environment clean, by using the following suggestions. The MS4 Permit requires the City of Huntington Park to semi-annually inspect Food Service, Automotive Repair, Retail Gasoline Outlets, and Nurseries, for which an approved fee will be directly invoiced.

Best Management Practices

Best Management Practices, or BMPs, are practices, processes, operating methods, or devices that are used to prevent and control pollutants from entering the storm drain system.

Benefits of implementing BMPs:

• Reduce urban runoff and stormwater conveyed pollution.

• Comply with governmental water quality regulations.

• Increase the business facility attractiveness to customers.

Educate

There are many types of BMPs that may be implemented depending on the type of business you operate and materials used. City staff and other business owners can help your chose among BMPs.

Good Housekeeping Practices

Keep dumpsters lids shut, especially if rain is forecast. Businesses, whose clients produce trash including cigarette butts, should provide, and frequently empty, trash and ash receptacles along with collecting trash from around the facility daily.

All work activities, including food preparation and auto repairs, should be performed indoors and under cover. Implement dry cleaning methods to avoid washing pollutants into the storm drain. Keep storm drains clear, clean, and marked by “No Dumping Drains to Ocean” labels to discourage illegal dumping.

Automotive Repair Facilities

Automotive and vehicle fluids, including oil, grease antifreeze, power steering and brake fluids, need to be managed, so they don’t end up polluting the environment. Businesses performing vehicle and equipment maintenance should train their employees how and why to properly use BMPs including:

• How to operate and maintain a clean dry repair shop.

• Dry-sweeping outdoor areas, rather than washing them.

• Using absorbents to properly dispose of spills and leaks.

• Storing parts and equipment under cover to avoid rainfall.

• Recycling motor oil, filters, antifreeze, batteries, and tires.

• Using drip pans to catch leaking fluids for recycle/disposal.

• Covering bulk or waste fluids over secondary containment.

• Wash vehicles and equipment to sanitary sewer inlets.

• Review and use the City Automotive Inspection Form.

WP5_1

Food Service Facilities

Food service facilities such as restaurants, grocery stores, bakeries, and delis, can contribute to urban runoff and stormwater pollution, by allowing trash, food wastes, cleaning products, oil, and grease into drainage inlets, street gutters, storm drains, and from their to the Los Angeles River and Pacific Ocean.

Follow these BMPs to help prevent water pollution

• Dispose of waste cooking fats, oils, and greases (FOG) to covered recycling bins, not sinks, storm drains or sanitary sewers. FOG clings to and blocks plumbing, including sewers, producing polluting sanitary sewer overflows.

• Sink grease traps and parking lot interceptors need regular maintenance and should be checked and cleaned monthly.

• Equipment, floor mats, filters and garbage cans should be cleaned in a mop sink, wash rack, or floor drain connected to the grease trap, interceptor and sanitary sewer, not. Washed onto the parking lot, alley, sidewalk, or street.

• Dry-sweep outside areas for disposal to the dumpster.

• Dispose of waste food and trash in the facility dumpster, keep the lids closed to exclude rainfall and vermin, and the area around the bin clean. Have damaged dumpsters replaced by United Pacific Wastes at phone number 866-699-7600 or http://www.upwrs.com

• Spilled FOG should be absorbed with clay or kitty litter and disposed as solid waste in the dumpster.

• Dumpster areas should not be pressure washed, steam cleaned, or washed down, unless the waste water is collected and disposed to the sanitary sewer or interceptor.

• Review and use the Food Service Facility Inspection Form.

WP5_2
WP5_3