October 1, 2008, - 7:35 pm
Eco-Statist Stupidity of the Day: Banning Carwashes?
By Debbie Schlussel
As readers know, I am a salmon afficionado, especially Copper River Salmon, which is the best salmon you can eat.
But, now, some eco-statist big brother types are trying to stop people from washing their cars on their driveways, saying it’s killing the salmon.
And they’ve convinced the State of Washington to make it public policy. Oh, and guess who’s supporting this? Shocker–the car wash industry.
Come on:
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.”
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.
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. . . .
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. . . .
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. . . .
Mark Thorsby, executive director of the International Carwash Association, the industry trade group of 25,000 commercial carwashes, said it supports the prohibition.
I think they should ban suntanning and make-up in Washington, too. Cologne and showers also. After all, the soap and oils, etc. all make it into the water eventually. Sprinkler and Slip’N’Slide parties for kids; Slurpees–fuhgedaboutit.
Might hurt the salmon.
And we thought we defeated the Soviet Union. It was actually an untaxed import to Washington State.
Debbie, i’ve always felt that the local $6 carwash is a better use of my time than doing it myself, and I’m sure it uses a lot less water. You don’t get the monsoon I remember from 20 years ago. Better yet, when it rains I consider it a feee carwash. The International Carwash Association would probably ban rain if they could.
Anonymous1 on October 1, 2008 at 8:30 pm