Washington State may illegalize driveway car washing

[TMN]

From: Washington may wipe out driveway car washing - Breaking News From Oregon & Portland - Oregonlive.com

VANCOUVER -- The driveway carwash, a Saturday morning rite of suburbia since -- well, since there have been suburbs -- is under pressure from the state of Washington.

In a pollution-fighting effort already in place in some Puget Sound communities, the state wants most Clark County residents to drop the bucket and shelve the detergent. Why? Because the runoff contains soap, chemicals and oil, and it all ends up in streams, rivers and lakes.

The state has told the county, Vancouver and three other cities to come up with laws to control what water -- other than rain -- goes into storm drains.

"We want people to make the connection of 'what goes on the street goes into the creek,'" said Bill Moore of the state Department of Ecology.

With Clark County's population and the availability of commercial carwashes where dirty water is captured, treated and reused, driveway and street car-washing should stop, he said.

But Brian Carlson, Vancouver's director of public works, had a different perspective: "Banning people from washing their cars and boats -- how realistic is that?"

Vancouver and nearly three dozen other Washington cities have challenged the state edict, which exceeds the federal Clean Water Act by including not just car-washing water but also water from yard sprinklers, among other things, Carlson said.

But the state Pollution Control Hearings Board said last week it intends in an October hearing to uphold the state's ability to exceed federal standards, he said.

Vancouver has not decided how to respond. The city passed an ordinance in early 2003 that permits residential car and boat washing, unless officials find someone's practice is having a "significant environment impact," Carlson said.

Perhaps the city will write that language into its storm water ordinance; perhaps a solution will come from the Legislature; perhaps the coalition of cities will file a lawsuit, he said.

One thing is for sure, Carlson said. "We're not going to be car-washing bureaucrats run amok. We have higher priorities than that."

Vancouver, Battle Ground, Camas and Washougal have until August 2009 to adopt ordinances. The requirement does not apply to other, smaller Clark County towns and cities.

Clark County will hold public hearings on a draft storm water ordinance in October or November. The Board of County Commissioners could adopt an ordinance by year's end, said Jim Gladson, a spokesman for Clark County Public Works.

"Are we going to go out and start ticketing people washing their car? No," he said.

Education is the key to help eliminate storm water pollution, the officials agreed. For those who want to keep washing their cars, experts say there are some ways to minimize the environmental impact:

Wash vehicles on gravel or grass where pollutants are filtered by soil and vegetation.

Empty buckets of dirty water down the toilet instead of a street drain, so the water goes through a treatment plant.

Use soap, biodegradable or not, that does not contain phosphorous. Or don't use any soap at all. soap at all.

[chiefstang]

I hate this. My condo community fobids it as well, but can't give me a reason why. I pay my own water bill, and there are ample drains. They still won't give me a reason why, but I do know I don't run my car through the carwash. The brush washes can scratch the paint pretty badly, and the touchless carwashes do a shitty job. They leave dirt and soap all over the car. Luckily I can hand wash my car in the wash bay at work. If the law goes statewide though, it would make it a huge pain in the ass for alot of people. Do really think the guy with the $250,000 Ferrari is going to want to follow the guy with the rusty Beretta through a wash? This is really stupid.

[TMN]

Life in a blue state. Ahh the freedoms of America, not like a communist country at all