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A car in Douglas County was sprayed with raw sewage while it was following a truck from a portable toilet company.

Unfortunately for the company, the driver of the car was a wastewater inspector for the Department of Environmental Quality.

This sort of thing almost never happens, said DEQ wastewater specialist Dan Wiltsie. The agency has a protocol to make sure providers of portable toilets are following health and safety rules. However, he said, it requires inspectors to go to the wastewater. The wastewater almost never comes to them.

“It seems to be pretty rare from what I’ve observed,” Wiltsie said. “This is the only incident of this sort that I know of in at least the last five years.”

Best Portable Toilets LLC in Grants Pass was fined $1,625 last week for the Aug. 2 incident.

According to a DEQ press release, company owner David Blalock is appealing the penalty. That’s not true, Blalock said. “I don’t know why everyone is calling us about this,” he said. “We are not appealing. We’re just paying the fine. I called the DEQ and told them that. I don’t know why they say we’re appealing.”

The evidence would be hard to ignore, Wiltsie said. At least it was for the DEQ inspector who reportedly just happened to be following a Best Portable Toilets truck when his windshield was sprayed from leaking 275-gallon tanks.

State law requires tanks pumping or storing sewage to be at least 550 gallons. The law also requires they not leak. Toward that end, Wiltsie said they are supposed to be made of airtight metal, be fully enclosed and have lids.

According to Wiltsie, two of the Best Toilet tanks were not fully enclosed. The inspector followed the truck to a wastewater facility in Roseburg and discovered the leaks.