Q&A for “Taco Tents – An Emerging Stormwater Issue”
Presentation at the Aug. 19, 2025, BIG Meeting

Questions and Answers:
Q-1: When you first became aware of this, how did you approach the operators since they work late at night? Did you just have staff stay late or use flex time?
A-1: These operations start around 6 PM and close between 12:00 and 2:00 PM. The required staff and the subconsultant, who provided communication services in Spanish, worked after ours to visit these operations. Staff use flextime for after-hours site visits. The working hours are definitely a challenge because the tents are set up between 6 and 7 pm and work until midnight or 2 am. We worked with our on-call consultant to visit these sites during those working hours.
Q-1b: How did you learn about these businesses?
A-1b: The call came into the Code Enforcement Team that grease was observed around a catch basin. Upon inspection, it was determined that a cleanup was required because we saw food waste and grease. Before we heard about the grease and trash in the catch basins, we heard about some public health issues and that is how we learned what these sites were. We also saw them on the streets ourselves after work as regular citizens. That was when we realized we needed to be agile and have staff out after hours. The work fell primarily to the code enforcement team.
Q-2: Have you thought about putting anything on social media encouraging people to report issues? How do you not make it seem like you are “hunting these businesses down?”
A-2: We know their locations and are creating strategies to work with these businesses to bring them into compliance. For the City of Shoreline, it is a source control and IDDE issue so we are starting with education and outreach first. We want these businesses operating in compliance. We are not putting this on social media, we are just keeping public health aware of the issues.
King County Public Health (KCPH) is putting out information on social media about what types of restaurants, businesses, food trucks and food tents to eat at. KCPH is focusing on informing the public that the public health safety signs posted at a business means this business is safe to eat at. We are focusing on education for the public and for these businesses.
Discussion: City of Bothell discussed Bothell’s experience working with these businesses, a staff member went out and met them. Most operators speak only Spanish. They come from LA where there is a lot of competition to here where there is less and they can make better money. One person (not known) owns all the equipment these taco tents use and that person hires people to work at locations s/he determines will make money. Once they locate a spot, they continue to use that location. When Bothell shuts one down, another operator moves in and operates and doesn’t know about the other operator being shut down.
Bothell recommends shutting them down before they get a long line of patrons. The biggest issue is what is dumped in the storm drain. At the end of the night, the tent operators dump the rice and fruit juice drink they did not sell. If the taco tent is on private property, it is possible to shut them down but it needs a “no trespass order” from the property owner after which code compliance can shut them down. In the right of way, it is more difficult because the police department does not want to engage with them.
Shoreline sees fruit drinks dumped as well. Providing a grease container for them would create the idea that what they are doing is legitimate, especially as it relates to public health issues and could open the city to liability if people get sick.
One idea was to take photos of license plates to figure out who owns the equipment vans but that is a grey area legally; it’s not a good use of police resources and if a law is not violated, it is not a correct use of police resources. Also, with the ICE raids, there is sensitivity around enforcing on this community and making them feel unwelcome.
Summary:
There is community demand for these vendors. They start set ups around 6:00 pm in locations around the city with high foot traffic. The operators typically speak Spanish, they do not own the equipment they use, the equipment is owned by one person who rents it to the operators. At the end of the night, the equipment is put away, the operators wash down the spaces where they cook to clean any stains. This water, along with the fruit and rice drink they did not sell, goes into the storm drains.
Shutting down these businesses is difficult; they are not breaking any laws overtly. The main concerns are public health issues related to food handling. Their washdown and disposal methods are not legal. This is difficult to enforce in the right-of-way. Police are reluctant to engage with this group because of ICE raids and not wanting to create additional hostility in the community.
Outreach and education for IDDE compliance needs to be in Spanish and needs to focus on solutions for their waste material. Also, there needs to be food handling requirements communicated to them to prevent food borne illness.