Here’s a question from a Road Warrior reader:
I live in Santa Rosa, and wash my new car in my driveway. I just had a neighbor come over and tell me that it’s illegal to wash my car in the driveway since the wash water goes to the storm drain. Is this true, or is my neighbor just a busybody? James
The answer comes from Heaven Moore, associate civil engineer for storm water in Santa Rosa’s Utilities Department, who says residential car washing is allowed under the city’s storm water ordinance.
But she says the city would prefer residents go to commercial car washes or wash their cars on gravel or grass so that the ground would absorb the wash water and soap rather than have it flow down a gutter. She says gutters empty into storm drains, which empty into creeks, where contaminants in the wash water could kill fish. She says even biodegradable soap is toxic to fish.
Moore says the ordinance covers commercial car washes and even car washes held as fundraisers, such as those you might see at a gas station. The key is that any runoff must flow into the city’s sewer system not down the gutter, she says.
If the city learns of the gutter runoff, a city worker will be sent to notify the fundraising group of the ordinance and how to meet it, she says. If a significant amount of wash water already has gone into a storm drain, then state water-pollution regulations require that the city send out a crew to vacuum up the suds and water before they get into a creek, she says. The charity or property owner would be charged for the cleanup, she says.
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Becca
OH MY GOODNESS!! I am soo glad I live somewhere where I dnt have to worry abt ppl telling me whn, where and how I have to wash my car!
June 9th, 2012 9:31 am
Capttan Kona
In other words. Your neighbor is just a busy body.
June 9th, 2012 10:58 am
Bob
So, Becca, I guess you don’t live in the State of California. Because that permitting process is a state implemention of the federal Clean Water Act as applied by Regional Water Quality Control Boards throughout the state.
As a citizen, you are responsible for helping to protect the things that belong to all of us. That includes water quality in creeks, and the wildlife that depend on it. That’s not new–it’s based in centuries-old British common law. It has been true in the US from the beginning.
June 9th, 2012 12:42 pm
Apartment renter
It’s on my rent agreement that it is not allowed to wash our car in the driveway, not because the landlord is a Green Thinker, but because they pay the water.
I rent a duplex down a dirt road, but in city limits.
Yet, maybe I just don’t have a life, I notice my duplex neighbor always washing their cars in the driveway.
June 9th, 2012 1:34 pm
ben
Yep, busybody would be a good choice of words, along with some others…
Good advice from Ms. Moore about washing on my grass, which I’ll follow next time I wash my car.
June 9th, 2012 3:05 pm
Safedriver
Besides that, you could be washing away the last known surviving native ant from his native homeland…
June 9th, 2012 8:56 pm
Jennifer
Yes, a busybody but…. it would be better to do it somewhere where it soaks into the ground instead of runs into the storm drain to kill the wildlife. Think of all the brake dust off the wheels and whatnot that goes with the soap down the drain. Or use those coin-op places so you still “do it yourself.”
June 9th, 2012 10:21 pm
Smurf
Perhaps this “busybody” was trying to save you from getting ticketed in their firm belief that you were breaking a law you were unaware of, and it came from a place of care and concern. And perhaps they are someone who cares about the environment. I personally do not understand wasting water to wash something that is just meant to get you from point A to point B.
June 11th, 2012 8:53 am
Chris
Point A to Point B transportation to some, but if you were passionate about automobiles, and/or had a nice car, washing and waxing it not only increase fuel economy 1%, but maintains resale value. Besides, who wants to be seen in a filthy car? My clients that I take to lunch in mine would probably go elsewhere if I took them to a nice lunch in a filthy beater wagon.
June 17th, 2012 4:59 pm
Todd
Man was not created to get along with his neighbor….
June 19th, 2012 10:59 am
Don
What about when the rain comes and washes all the oil and crap off the road into storm drains. It shouldn’t matter if you wash your car in your drive way or not.
September 15th, 2012 3:20 pm