Car Wash Fundraisers and Waste Water Restrictions in California

Many cities are disallowing car wash fundraisers unless the non-profit group can guarantee that no dirty car wash soapy water will go into the storm drain. No matter how you feel about the government’s philosophy on car wash fundraisers, we suggest that you follow some of the following Best Management Practices (BMP’s) especially if your city or county regulates such discharges. They might not and a little soap is actually good for the environment. I suggest you use a coconut-based soap or citrus-based soap. You might even try Liquid Organic Cleaner (L.O.C.) from Amway. It doesn’t form a lot of suds but it works great and won’t hurt the environment or the fish if a little run off (car wash waste water effluent) finds its way into a storm drain. If you are in a city or county that regulates discharges from car wash fundraisers, such as Los Angeles or San Francisco, you are going to have to follow the rules.

We suggest that you use the following methods to contain your waste wash water and prevent the effluent from entering near by storm drains or waterways. We call these methods "Best Management Practices" or "BMP’s". Your goal should be not to let any water containing soap to enter any storm drain. With this goal in mind, you should proceed and have a great fundraiser and earn those much needed monies that your organization deserves.

BMP #1: Block off the storm drain. Try to wash the cars at the highest point, hopefully a flat surface area. At the end of the day after most of the water has evaporated, pump the remaining the water into a sanitary sewer drain. If you are at a gas station, they might have a dump for R.V. toilets. A clarifier is also good. Maybe a restroom toilet. On a sunny day most of the water will evaporate. If no one in your group owns a water pump ask the local wastewater authorities if you may borrow a pump for your event. Or vacuum up the water with a shop vacuum.

BMP #2: Select a site where the cars can be driven onto grass or gravel before washing. This way soapy water can filter through vegetation and soil before entering ground water or running off into the drainage ditch or storm drain.

BMP #3: Have a great car wash but don’t use any soap.

BMP #4: Block off the storm drains and pump left over wastewater onto the grass or into the planters thereby water the landscaping. Let most of the water evaporate before pumping so you don’t overflow the planters.

BMP #5: Pick a location where water runs off into a field or landscape directly after the pavement ends.

SO WHAT’S IN THE WATER THAT MAKES IT SO BAD ANYWAYS?

Well, first of all, we have chlorine in our tap water. There is also magnesium and calcium. And that’s before you even wash one car. If you spray the hose in the air that’s what’s in the water before it hits the ground. Due to the calcium and magnesium in the water in California, especially Southern California, it is necessary to soften our water. The chlorine and fluoride that we add to our water doesn’t help any either. Hard water spots are a major problem. Just park your car next to your sprinklers at home and you will see exactly what we are talking about. If your car is a dark color and you park it in the sun, the hard water spots will etch themselves into your clear coat and cause permanent damage to your paint job. The chemicals bake into the paint.

The desert cities such as Lancaster, Palm Springs, etc. have a major problem with this. You see, when it’s 115° F in the shade, the cars dry in three minutes. Luckily, multiple dryers can dry a car in two minutes. A crew of two can stay on top of it by drying most cars in one to one and one-half minutes. The main problem is soaping. The soap dries before you can rinse it off and the water evaporates out of the soap bucket every fifth car. The sprayer has to follow the soaper around the car, which is good because, by the time they are done, they’re hot. They can take turns spraying each other off.

If you have ever taken any chemistry classes, you know that just about everything is water soluble eventually. Water can combine with almost anything and make some pretty weird compounds, none of which are particularly good for the environment.

The hardness is water is caused by calcium and magnesium ions that form insoluble compounds. Also you can find iron and even traces of aluminum in our water. Our water is some of the clearest and cleanest in the world. It comes from the DWP (Department of Water and Power) and the MWD (Metropolitan Water District). Actually it doesn’t really come from there. It starts out as rain, drains to lakes and rivers and is brought to the people by canals, pipes and pumping stations.

So that is exactly what’s in the water before the wash. Now here is what may be in the water after the car wash. 6-22 mg/l of oil and grease. Usually this doesn’t come off the car. This is what is on the ground already that the water washes away. Yuk! How would you like to drink that in your bottled water. There are also suspended solids (TSS) with concentrations of 35-151 mg/l. Most of that is dirt, yet we can never know where each car has been and what’s in that dirt (i.e. bird droppings). There will also be foaming agents (soap) with concentrations of 0.3-1.41 mg/l which is very low. Yet I wouldn’t want to drink it or use it to make ice cubes. There probably isn’t but there could also be toluene, ethylbenzene and benzene. These are wicked ingredients that you definitely don’t want floating around in your puppy’s water bowl or your wife’s cappuccino. All other run off from car washes meets the drinking water standards and is certainly not going to adversely affect wild life or kill any ocean going fish.

The Regional Water Quality Control Board is not the only governing body concerned with water discharges. The Coastal Commission is also very concerned as well as the Department of Fish and Game. Both agencies have authority to issue civil penalties for water pollution.

For more information on water quality you can contact:

California Department of Fish and Game
Marine Resources Division
330 Golden Shore, Suite 50
Long Beach, CA 90802
FAX (310) 590-5193

Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board
101 Centre Plaza Drive
Monterey Park, CA 91754
Phone (213) 266-7500

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