Watch: Burger King Employee Dumps Fry Oil into Storm Drain

Check out the video at the bottom of this post.

A Lake Worth Burger King manager is out of a job after a passerby captured on unsavory practice on video last week.

It seems the manager at the 6405 Lantana Road franchise instructed an employee to dump smoking hot fry grease down a storm drain instead of following proper disposal protocols. Resident Joseph May recorded the video and posted it to both his Facebook and YouTube pages.

“The gentleman right here (was) told by his manager to dump it right into the sewer,” May is heard on the video saying. “(It’s) going right back into the ocean.”

The employee, who was not named on the video, made no comments. Instead, he simply carried out the task.

“Saw this yesterday on my way to Chilis,” May wrote on Facebook. “Burger King employee dumping used oil right into a storm drain. International franchise and they cant pay for a disposal company?! How often is this happening? Everyday? Twice a day? Someone needs to be held accountable for this.”

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May closed out the video saying he was going inside to speak to the manager.

It seems he did just that and so did the president of the franchise company that happens to own that particular Florida Burger King.

“We don’t know why he did it, and we didn’t know it was happening at the time,” Johanna Estep told the Broward Palm Beach New Times. That store, she told the publication, has a disposal company that picks up used oil.

The franchise has fired a general manager following the incident and also paid for a plumber to come out to remove grease from the drain. The EPA also responded, but didn’t find grease because of the plumber’s visit, the Times noted.

Used cooking oil is not meant to go down drains. When it does, it “gels and solidifies into thick layers inside drainpipes, sewage pipelines and sewage lift stations, constricting water flow,” Hillsborough County explains on its website. “The result not only can back up home plumbing, but also can cause lift station pumps and other equipment to malfunction. That can create sewage spills, overflows onto streets, and foul odors in homes and neighborhoods. It’s messy, smelly and costly to clean up.”

While that is problematic enough, county spokeswoman Andrea Roshaven points out that illegal discharges of any type into stormwater or sewer drains are “less about pipe buildup than the damage to our local waterways.” They pose a danger to wildlife, as well, which is why the county urges anyone who observes dumping to report them to local authorities as was done in the Burger King incident.

Hillsborough County offers a drop off program for household cooking oils and requires commercial and industrial operations to contract with commercial grease haulers for proper disposal.

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