Tensions are high between BIDs and food truck operators. (Photo: Jay Westcott)

UPDATE 5:52 p.m.: El Floridiano proprietor Stephan Boillon describes the sprinkler incident as just seeming oddly timed. He generally parks his truck at Farragut Square on Fridays, and had never seen sprinklers turned on in the park before (which matches the Golden Triangle BID's account of their normal activities in the square).

"The timing was funny," says Boillon. "It might have been simply unintentional, but with that big Washington City Paper article ... ." Boillon is a main character in this week's Washington City Paper cover story, which details how BIDs like the Golden Triangle are pushing the D.C. Council to apply strict rules on where and how food trucks like his may operate.

At around 1:30 p.m. Friday afternoon, Boillon says he was parked at Farragut and serving a long line of customers. "I was really busy and had my head down, and then all of a sudden I wasn't as busy anymore, and I looked up and noticed that the sprinklers were on." He says the sprinklers appeared to be aimed right where his customers had been lined up along the edge of the square, which might explain why there were suddenly none. He decided to go ahead and move his truck to the other side of the square, where he finished up serving the late-lunch crowd.

As I explain what Golden Triangle's Agouridis had to say, including an apology if in fact anybody got soaked, Boillon concedes it could very well have been a coincidence — even if that's a little tough for him to swallow. In addition to the sprinklers, Boillon says he also got a visit from a health inspector this afternoon, which he suspects may have also been triggered by the City Paper story. (He says his truck passed inspection; the report isn't yet available from the city). I also mention that Agouridis had asked me if I would put her in touch with him, so she could clear things up with him personally. He's mulling that over, but will probably wait until next week to decide. "She's one of our biggest opponents," he says.

Original post: Apropos of this week's must-read Washington City Paper story on the ongoing tensions between brick-and-mortar restaurants, the Business Improvement Districts that represent their interests, and the District of Columbia's growing army of mobile food truck vendors, this tweet from the El Floridiano food truck this afternoon has been making the rounds:

@FLmeetsDC: The Golden Triangle BID seriously just turned the sprinklers on my customers.

We haven't yet heard back from the El Floridiano crew about exactly how this allegedly went down, but their Facebook updates provide some details. El Floridiano announced it was on its way to Farragut Square Friday afternoon at about 12:15 p.m., and then at approximately 1:40 p.m., the update about the sprinkler incident appeared.

Golden Triangle BID executive director Leona Agouridis insists that nobody from the BID intentionally turned the sprinklers on anyone. A crew of Golden Triangle "ambassadors," (the folks with the yellow shirts you see downtown offering to help with directions, local knowledge, etc.) were out in Farragut Square this afternoon to water the grass, she says, something the BID has been helping the National Park Service to do for the last couple of months as the grass started to wither under the strain of this summer's intense heat. But her employees swear they weren't targeting anyone with the water, and that one of them in fact stuck around in the park to make sure their mobile sprinkling system didn't bother anyone.

"It certainly was not our intention of getting water on anybody. If they got anybody wet, we're very sorry," Agouridis says.

She goes on to add that today's watering schedule was a bit unusual, so food trucks that serve lunchtime customers aren't likely to contend with watering activities very often. Normally, the sprinklers get turned on in the morning, but today, her crew was dispatched over to the park at the intersection of Connecticut and Rhode Island avenues and M Street, where they were planting some flowers. That meant the sprinkler crew didn't arrive at Farragut Square until 11:30 a.m., which is much later than they'd normally be there.

TBD wasn't there this afternoon, and we don't have many more details as yet. Did you see anyone waiting for a food truck get wet this afternoon? Let us know in the comments.