Unveil the Truth Regarding Residential Carwashing

The truth is out! Residential carwashing pollutes this country’s waterways. You know this, I know this and most logically thinking people know this, and now some U.S. cities are doing something about it. One city in particular — Federal Way, Wash. — has given us a study that other municipalities can use to better understand the harmful environmental affects of residential carwashing.

Conducted by the Federal Way Surface Water Management Division and published in July, the Residential Car Washwater Monitoring Study illustrates the connection between residential carwashing, storm water, local surface waters and the Puget Sound. For years, environmentalists have told the public that washing cars in the driveway is detrimental to local waterways, and now Federal Way city staff has the numbers to prove it.

Federal Way’s findings back up the carwash industry. In my opinion, this study is one of the most powerful and important reports to affect our industry in many years and can be used as a resource by any carwash owner or operator who is facing drought restrictions or pollution issues. In fact, the results can be localized to some degree and used as a tool by carwash operators to help educate their local city and water management officials.

Washington is a state that takes protecting its local waterways very seriously, and Federal Way is no different. The city has said it will use the study’s findings to educate consumers in an effort to prevent storm water pollution. Federal Way may be located between Seattle and Tacoma, but it just as easily could be Logan, Utah, or Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Water is water and pollution is pollution. This study provides valuable talking points regarding the proper way to wash vehicles at home and the real “low down” on what is the most environmentally sound way to wash a vehicle.

The Phase II Municipal Stormwater Permit requires municipalities across our nation to put in place programs to manage pollution that is mixed in with storm water discharge. The permit also requires jurisdictions to reduce or eliminate storm water pollution by educating the public. Your local community is likely engaged in its own programs at this very time, and the information provided by this report might be very timely for city officials and beneficial to you if you use it efficiently.

Because it was nearly impossible to get samples from individual driveway carwash occurrences, the city of Federal Way collected samples from five different weekend fundraising carwash events. These samples indicate some startling findings and make it easy to understand why a professional carwash is mandated to trap and dispose of all wastewater runoff only through a municipal sewer system.

The Federal Way study indicates oil, phosphorous, ammonia, surfactants and solid wastes are the typical contaminants from residential carwashing. Based on a series of conversion factors, including the estimated number of registered vehicles in the city (62,000), the percentage of car owners who wash their vehicles in their driveway (38 percent, as indicated by the International Carwash Association’s 2005 consumer study), residential wash frequency (every two weeks), amount of water used with a low-flow nozzle (20 gallons), and the weight of contaminants caught up in the effluent, Federal Way officials estimate that residents annually deposit the following pollution loads into the city’s storm water drainage system:

• 190 gallons of gasoline, diesel and motor oil
• 400 pounds of phosphorous and nitrogen
• 60 pounds of ammonia
• 2,200 pounds of surfactants
• 30,000 pounds of solid wastes

Here is how you can use these findings to estimate what is occurring in your local market. By breaking down the Federal Way study results into the amount of pollution generated per registered vehicle, we can develop a formula that can be used to estimate the amount of pollution generated by residential carwashing in your local community.

To determine the number of registered cars in your area, contact your local city traffic department or your state department of motor vehicles. If you still cannot arrive at the number of registered vehicles, then you’re relatively safe in using the following formula based on the population of your community:

Multiply your population base by 0.688 to arrive at an average of registered vehicles based on population. For example: 10,000 population = 6,880 registered vehicles.

Based on the Federal Way results, we can estimate the amount of contaminants generated for every 10,000 registered vehicles. Using simple ratios, we can estimate the following:

• 30.6 gallons of gasoline, diesel and motor oil
• 64.5 pounds of phosphorous and nitrogen
• 9.7 pounds of ammonia
• 355 pounds of surfactants
• 4,838 pounds of solid wastes

Once you have multiplied these numbers out for your community to estimate the amount of pollution created by residential carwashing, prepare a personal letter to accompany your findings and present your report with printed copies of the Federal Way study to city officials, storm water regulators and private environmental groups. Most public officials will become equally concerned when you can illustrate a sum total of pollution coming from local residential carwashing. Emphasize what former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Christine Todd Whitman said while in office: “Water is going to be the biggest environmental issue that we face in terms of both quantity and quality.”

The sooner we act to educate consumers the better off we all will be.

In addition, ask your local officials to support educating consumers about the pollution they create every time they wash their car in their driveway or at a charity event not conducted at a professional carwash facility. I am willing to bet that the majority of consumers do not know that the dirty wastewater from driveway or parking lot carwashes flows into our natural wetlands, carrying with it detrimental amounts of gasoline, diesel, motor oil, phosphorous, nitrogen, ammonia, surfactants (soaps) and solid waste.

Local and federal environmental groups have created an urgent need to protect our nation’s natural resources. If each city or water municipality adds something as simple as an educational flier to its monthly invoices — using the statistics you provide — imagine the change that could occur, a change you helped orchestrate.

We all want to protect our environment and the natural resources that sustain our way of life. As people understand their impact, they will begin the process of making a profound difference in improving their communities’ watershed environments. In turn, we will see far more homeowners make a conscientious change to wash their cars at a professional carwash — hopefully yours.

The full Federal Way study can be downloaded here.

In January, WCA members, water regulators and consumers will have access to a “Drought and Pollution Tool Kit” that will help effect change in their communities. Don’t wait until a drought affects your area. Become proactive now! Arm yourself with information and tools, and proactively begin working in your own community to change the way people wash their cars.

Randy Cressall is owner of Valencia Chevron Auto Spa in Valencia, Calif., and immediate past president and vice chair, environmental committee, of the Western Carwash Association. He can be contacted at randy@valenciaautospa.com.

Related Article:

• City Study Shows Dangers of Residential Carwashing