No driveway carwashes...........

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Paul Steinberg

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Guess Rick isn't going to be washing his car any longer... :D

By William M. Welch, USA TODAY
Along with wild salmon and steelhead trout, the Pacific Northwest soon may have another endangered species — the driveway carwash.
Washing your car or boat in the driveway or street is a residential ritual as American as backyard barbecues. But the state of Washington is telling its local governments they must prohibit home car washing unless residents divert the wash water away from storm drains, where they say it causes water pollution.
"I understand this is something people have done for a long time," says Bill Moore, water quality specialist with the Washington state Department of Ecology, which is requiring the ban. "It's not something we should be doing any longer."

Some residents defiant
He says the soapy runoff is toxic to salmon and other fish and that small metal particles that wash off cars, such as brake dust, is harmful, too.
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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."
He gets sympathy from Brian Carlson, public works director for Vancouver, a city of 160,000 people just across the Columbia River from Portland, Ore. He says the city is being ordered by state Ecology Department officials to pass an ordinance banning carwash runoff by next year, but that neither he nor other city officials intend to do so.
"We don't think it's realistic," Carlson says.
City ordinances specifically allow home car washing and its runoff into storm drains, he said. City officials support an education campaign that urges people to "be sensitive and be careful" when washing a vehicle.
"But an outright ban that puts something on the books that's unrealistic to enforce just doesn't make any sense," Carlson says.
"And we would not enforce it," he says. "We're not going to go around ticketing people for car washing."
That's not the case in King County, home to the state's biggest city, Seattle.
Curt Crawford, manager of the storm water services section for the county, says the county is writing a proposed ordinance now to ban home car washing if the runoff goes into storm drains. He expects it to pass this fall and says it has local support.
"We just don't want soapy wash water going out into streams (to) kill fish," he says.
Washington state environmental officials insist they aren't banning home car washing — just the runoff into storm drains, Moore and Schmanke say. They say residents will still be able to wash cars on lawns or gravel driveways where water will soak in the ground. Residents can wash on pavement if they install barriers to prevent wash water from going into storm sewers.
Those aren't workable alternatives, some say. Dave Anderson, half of the Mark and Dave radio team on KEX radio in Portland.
"I don't put in an effort to make my driveway nice, and that's where I'm going to wash my car," Anderson says.
Moore and Schmanke say the state's Department of Ecology is requiring the ordinances as a condition for issuing water runoff permits to cities and counties. Moore says it is acting under authority of the federal Clean Water Act and does expect local governments to enforce it.
"If folks fail to comply, the Department of Ecology has a number of tools we can use," he says. "We can issue orders, notice of violations, and, if necessary, penalties to local governments that fail to issue ordinances."
But officials of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency say federal law does not require that Washington or any other state take such a step.
Federal vs. state laws
Misha Vakoc, storm water permit coordinator for the Pacific Northwest region, said residential carwash runoff is allowed in storm drain systems under federal law but that states are permitted to go beyond the standard.
Karina Shagren, spokeswoman for Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire, responded to questions about the prohibition by saying the governor has spoken with state Ecology Director Jay Manning and that his department will "fix the problem in a way that will still allow people to wash their cars while still protecting our waters."
A day later, Manning issued a statement saying, "It has recently become apparent that there is significant confusion" about residential car washing. He repeated alternatives — washing over grass or diverting wash water away from drains. "Another option is to use a commercial carwash," the statement said.
Mark Thorsby, executive director of the International Carwash Association, the industry trade group of 25,000 commercial carwashes, said it supports the prohibition. Its members install sometimes expensive equipment to minimize water use and prevent pollution, he said. Because of that, commercial carwashes wouldn't be affected by the proposal.
"A ban on home carwashing would benefit an industry like mine, but that's not a motivation behind what regulators are doing," he said.
Muhlhauser has a different view.
"It's just infringement on your rights to live a normal life," he says.
 
Ahhhh yes the tree hugging environmental loonies! I had a run in with one of these government idiots several years ago in the business park where i worked and stored Pauls ambulance when it arrived from Alaska. She notified us we were NOT allowed to wash our tow trucks in the business park using soap and water. Several days later, i was washing a truck when she drove thru. She got out of her van and started SCREAMING at me; i just smiled and said "You told me I couldnt use soap and water. I am just using plain water to wash it" She looked at my wash bucket and there was no soap in it, and decided i was in compliance with the regulation.
 
"Mark Thorsby, executive director of the International Carwash Association, the industry trade group of 25,000 commercial carwashes, said it supports the prohibition."

Now THERE"S a shocker......

Steve
 
will if you want to make money in this country you got to have the government pass a law that says people can only use your product.
oh yes the good old days wen we would take the car down to the river drive it in and wash it right there in the stream. interesting that there green movement thinks that grass converts soap to something that will not harm the environment. you can pull you car onto the lawn and wash away. Ok I have to say to the green people sorry my bad it all my dads fault that hurricane Katerina blew in and did all that damage in La. here is now proof that we did it. that's me my big sister and dad. Bev and I, will we are not here we are dead as we never got put in car seats and road around in the unsafe old 36 Hudson conv with dad and mom smoking in front of us. here is dad putting that soap in the river that flows to the Cheyenne that goes into Missouri that goes into the Mississippi that emptys into the gulf that built up the phosphated that caused the plantation to grow the lead to the storm that did all that damage to the gulf cost. I admit it's our fault for being dumb hill billies that know no better. I'll now go crawl under a rock and try not to ruining the world for Al anymore.
 

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