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ATF Puts Up Surveillance Cameras Around Seattle ... To Catch Illegal Grease Dump (muckrock.com)
v3rgEz writes: Last summer, Seattleites noticed that utility poles around town were showing some odd growths: A raft of surveillance cameras that, under Seattle's strict surveillance equipment laws, shouldn't have been there without disclosure and monitoring. But Seattle Police said that they weren't theirs, and one enterprising citizen followed up with a series of public records requests, only to discover that they were actually the ATF's cameras — on the watch for grease dumpers. Now the requester is fighting for the full list of federal surveillance watching over Seattle, and answers to how often federal agencies pursue what appear to be purely local crimes.
That's not entirely state-of-the-art information. Current landfill technique is to indeed seal the contents from the groundwater - but they now encourage the contents to rot. In the 80s, they developed a technique of burying in layers, putting down a membrane, and then putting down another layer, etc. until the landfill is "full". At that point they cap it. Anything that leaches out of the bottom is hauled to a treatment plant. Over the last 10 years, they have modified this technique. Now between each layer they take the leech water and pour it back over the landfill. This encourages the landfill itself to become bio-reactive and to eat the nutrients in the leech water. They pretty much do this until the leech water runs more or less clear, and then they move on to the next step. This has several benefits:
1. Future leech water is much less nasty
2. Volume is reduced significantly, so more trash will fit.
3. It encourages methane production, which is captured and often used onsite or burned rather than slowly released into the atmosphere.
This - along with much improved recycling - is why we don't hear much about "running out of landfill space" anymore like we did in the 80s and 90s.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
It probably isn't. The article does kinda sorta make that claim, but has no evidence whatsoever to back up the link. It actually appears to be saying that someone is using the ATF's cameras to conduct a grease dumping investigation, not that the ATF is itself conducting the investigation.
The facts seem to be:
- The ATF, FBI, and other Federal agencies have set up the cameras.
- Someone (TFA says ATF, but that's not believable and they offer nothing to back that up) is conducting a grease dumping investigation. They have access to these cameras set up by the FBI and ATF.
- The ATF themselves say the cameras they've put up were originally for a single investigation. They have been linked to a gun violence program in Seattle, so it is more than likely their investigation is linked to that.
- The ATF has emphatically not claimed its doing a grease investigation anywhere, which makes no sense.
It's a confusing article, but it doesn't really make the claim the headline does.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
Actually once you get to the nitroglycerin step you are squarely in the ATF's purview, since they regulate explosives. "ATF" is an anachronistic acronym; since 1970 agency's full actual name is "The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives".
But glycerin is a commonplace an innocuous chemical widely used in cosmetics and food; you can buy it by the barrel without raising any eyebrows. It makes no sense to reason that fats are under the purview of ATF because you can produce glycerin from it.
I tried to google the source of the grease story, and it appears that back in 2011 SCL asked for ATF's technical assistance in tracking down grease dumpers, but that the camera placements currently in question are for use in a current investigation by the Puget Sound Regional Crime Gun Task Force.
So no big mystery about why the ATF is tracking down grease dumpers, that's just a misreading of the evidence trail.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Why is the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms interested in illegal grease dumping?
I'm the Seattleite who dug up those records. ATF were likely not interested in people dumping grease. Seattle City Light were, because it was damaging their equipment. Since security manager Doug Williams at SCL regularly lets ATF and other agencies covertly install surveillance cameras on SCL's poles (which I learned by reading e-mails to and from him I received via Washington Public Records Act request), ATF were likely paying back the favor.