No Washing in Washington
Washington State is telling local governments that they need to ban carwashing in driveways, where runoff goes into storm drains and pollutes groundwater.
"Unlike public sanitary sewer systems that clean wastes from water, storm drain systems in most communities empty straight into streams and eventually rivers and oceans.
'Clearly you cannot dump your bucket of wash water, or as you are hosing down your car, you're not supposed to allow that into a storm drain,' says Kim Schmanke, spokeswoman for the department.
Mark Muhlhauser, 41, who washes his Toyota Highlander nearly every weekend outside his Vancouver, Wash., home, has a simple message for regulators: Come get him.
'I will wash it this weekend,' he said defiantly. 'It's just totally crazy. I don't think anybody's going to follow it. Everybody I've talked to, they're still planning on washing their cars.'"
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DOE did not ban
Department of Ecology News Release - September 29, 2008
08-266
Setting the record straight - no ban on car washing in Washington
OLYMPIA - Contrary to a story in today's USA Today, Washington has not banned residential car washing.
Last week, the Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology) provided guidance about residential car washing to cities and counties covered by the state's municipal stormwater permit.
Ecology emphasized informing and educating people about the problem of polluted runoff, and precautions everybody can take to keep our waters clean.
Ecology said it would take a public education approach to proper car washing and it urged local governments to do the same and not issue tickets, fines or other penalties. See the news release: http://www.ecy.wa.gov/news/2008news/2008-259.html .
Most people want to do the right thing for the environment. If they have the facts, they will act on them to solve a problem. Dumping used motor oil down the storm drain used to be common practice, but now the public knows better.
There are a number of simple ways to wash cars that don't result in soapy wash waters getting into our creeks and rivers. Wash your car over grass or any other surface where the wash water seeps into the ground. Or lay something on the ground to divert the wash water away from the storm drain. Another option is to use a commercial car wash.
Soapy, dirty car wash water, carrying with it oils, grease and toxic metals is a serious pollution source when it occurs on a large scale. Since most storm drains run directly into local streams or marine waters - without treatment - storm drains are direct extensions of those local waters.
Ecology has posted additional guidance about car washing on its website at www.ecy.wa.gov under "Spotlight."
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Media Contact: Sandy Howard, communications manager, 360-407-6408 (office); 360-791-3177 (cell); srud461@ecy.wa.gov
Previous Department of Ecology news release: http://www.ecy.wa.gov/news/2008news/2008-259.html
For more information: http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/wq/stormwater/CarWash.html
Copyright © Washington State Department of Ecology. See http://www.ecy.wa.gov/copyright.html.