GREECE, N.Y. — A Burger King employee was caught pouring gallons of grease down a storm sewer that runs straight into a creek.
A witness at the drive-thru window at the restaurant at Mount Read Boulevard and Maiden Lane saw two employees walk out with grease pans Monday evening. His phone caught them pouring the pans into the sewer.
“Right over here is the sewer drain, you can obviously see how much oil is splattered around the area,” Bates said.
Doug Bates took pictures of a Burger King employee pouring the oil into the sewer. He returned Monday night and used a stack of paper towels to soak up the grease.
“But as you drove by right through here you could smell the nasty, dirty, used oil,” Bates said.
DEC police and spill team on site
When News10NBC arrived Tuesday, the DEC police and spill response team were already on scene. Video shows remnants caught in the sewer grate.
The DEC says it is against the law to pour restaurant oil on the street or into a sewer. The sewer is on Tops property but all those sewer lines run behind the property and into Paddy Hill Creek.
Oil and grease create what are called “fatbergs” which cause 90 percent of blockages and cost New York City $18 million every year to clean out. This Burger King is part of a franchise called JSC Management.
Franchise owner: “We take this matter seriously”
“The actions taken by the employee were not consistent with our policies or procedures,” JSC Management wrote in an email. “The matter was addressed immediately. Appropriate corrective action has been taken, including discipline and retraining, and procedures have been reinforced with the team.”
“I thought it was odd at first and working in the food industry I knew it wasn’t allowed,” Bates said. “So I was like I’m going to take some pictures of it and I figured Berkeley would be a good one to look into it.”
The owner says they have a holding tank which works. In this case, the employee decided not to use it.
“We take this matter seriously and are committed to operating responsibly within our community,” JSC Management wrote.
The state DEC says three to five gallons of grease was dumped into the storm drain. As a precaution they put a device that absorbs the grease where the sewer goes into the creek.
“DEC ticketed the employee under Environmental Conservation Law for disposal of a substance injurious to fish and disposal of an unlawful substance into a public stream,” the department wrote in an email. “DEC will continue to work with the Town of Greece sewer department and monitor the response to ensure protection of the environment.”