High school cheerleader car wash violates environmental laws

[Locutus]

It’s hard to wave your spirit fingers when the city shuts down the cheerleading squad’s fundraising car wash to protect the environment.
This is what happened to Lincoln High School cheerleaders trying to raise money to attend a national competition in April. The San Jose Mercury reports that local environmental officials warned the high school cheerleaders that their car wash violated the city’s water discharge laws.


“We had a visit from the city of San Jose Environmental Services Department who said that the car washes at Hoover [Middle School] are in violation of water discharge laws, therefore we had to cancel this and all future car washes,” said an email that was sent out to neighborhood email lists on Oct. 18.


“Anything that is not storm water or rain water is considered a pollutant,” said Jennie Loft, acting communications manager for San Jose’s Environmental Services Department. “If it goes into a storm drain, that pollutant will harm wildlife and habitats in the creeks. Water goes directly from the storm drains into our creeks.”


High school cheerleader car wash violates enviromental laws | The Daily Caller

cullifornia

 

[karrie]

Not just California. Look at your local by-laws, and most places have water discharge by-laws, including making it an offense to wash your car in your driveway, or even drain your hot tub into storm drains (the two we've been known to do here in my house).

 

[Tecumsehsbones]

I would have thought if something brought down high school cheerleader car washes, it woulda been 15-year-old girls in bikini bottoms and thoroughly soaked, thin t-shirts.

Oh, well, the law works in mysterious ways. They got Capone for tax evasion.

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

They just can't use soap. Or they have to do it such that the water does not drain into the storm sewers.

 

[Cannuck]

Not just California. Look at your local by-laws, and most places have water discharge by-laws, including making it an offense to wash your car in your driveway, or even drain your hot tub into storm drains (the two we've been known to do here in my house).

Many municipalities are required to dechlorinate water when they flush hydrants.

LPD-250 Dechlorinating Diffuser

 

[karrie]

Yup. A lot of schools have massive education campaigns regarding storm drains. The kids go paint fish on the drains near the school to educate others and themselves of the fact that the drains are not treated, and lead directly to waterways. Right now, all around the city I'm in, there are special sandbags around storm drains because road work means debris can wash down otherwise, and that ruins creeks and rivers. Even road crews can't escape the bylaws.

 

[Locutus]

Thank god all the road salt, dog and bird sh!t gets flushed away when it rains. That's all I can say, about that there.

 

[karrie]

Thank god all the road salt, dog and bird sh!t gets flushed away when it rains. That's all I can say, about that there.

None of which cause the issues that phosphates in soaps do.

 

[petros]

Not just California. Look at your local by-laws, and most places have water discharge by-laws, including making it an offense to wash your car in your driveway, or even drain your hot tub into storm drains (the two we've been known to do here in my house).

Provincial laws. My jackass neighbour across the alley dumped 40L of gasoline that had turned to varnish in the alley where rainwater would blast it into a "green fish" catch basin.. It reeked for days so I called. They gave it a file number and nothing else.

I must have worked because I haven't seen a green fish in months.

 

[Zipperfish]

Not just California. Look at your local by-laws, and most places have water discharge by-laws, including making it an offense to wash your car in your driveway, or even drain your hot tub into storm drains (the two we've been known to do here in my house).

I've seen entire creeks sterilized out by guys draining their swimming pools into a storm drain, especially after they've been shocked (super-chlorinated). Hundreds of dead fish.

 

[MHz]

How much paint does the city put down on the streets and parking lots every year?

Start giving the guys with oil leaks a fine and the tire companies can pay a tax for the rubber that gets left on the road.

(super-chlorinated). Hundreds of dead fish.

I thought everybody was moving over to salt-water for the pools and hot tubs. You know, ... like before chlorine.

 

[DaSleeper]

How much paint does the city put down on the streets and parking lots every year?

Start giving the guys with oil leaks a fine and the tire companies can pay a tax for the rubber that gets left on the road.

On Oil leaks:
If you haven't noticed it already, Check the parking spaces in any mall early in the morning before the parking lot fills up.
All the spaces with the most oil leaks are close to the different mall or store entrances...
Same with big hardware or grocery stores...
Watsa matter....seems like all the old beaters owners are too lazy to walk a few feet?

 

[Locutus]

How much paint does the city put down on the streets and parking lots every year?

Dunno but hopefully it's that 'low VOC' stuff eh. :lol:

 

[karrie]

On Oil leaks:
If you haven't noticed it already, Check the parking spaces in any mall early in the morning before the parking lot fills up.
All the spaces with the most oil leaks are close to the different mall or store entrances...
Same with big hardware or grocery stores...
Watsa matter....seems like all the old beaters owners are too lazy to walk a few feet?

Here's a fun project for you DaS.

Go to that same parking lot, and track the frequency with which each stall gets parked in. The stalls closer to the doors see more vehicles per day, than the ones further.

 

[DaSleeper]

Here's a fun project for you DaS.

Go to that same parking lot, and track the frequency with which each stall gets parked in. The stalls closer to the doors see more vehicles per day, than the ones further.

Too true....and the odds of an oil leak goes up
I also noticed and I have done it too, that people with brand new cars or trucks park further away, to prevent the usual dings and scratches that one is prone to get by people opening doors too wide etc.
After a few years and a couple of dings you park as close as you can like everybody else....and it's also the time you start getting oil leaks

 

[MHz]

On Oil leaks:

Watsa matter....seems like all the old beaters owners are too lazy to walk a few feet?

It shows that they get there early in the day, after they drop their oil the BMW's move in for the rest of the day.

Dunno but hopefully it's that 'low VOC' stuff eh. :lol:

Makes me wish I had shares in the paint supply business.

 

[Tecumsehsbones]

None of which cause the issues that phosphates in soaps do.

I think the logic we're seeing here is "If we can't stop all pollution, we shouldn't try to stop any pollution."

 

[lone wolf]

Thank god all the road salt, dog and bird sh!t gets flushed away when it rains. That's all I can say, about that there.

How about calcium chloride - the stuff they use so yuppies can crash their Beamers at 100 MPH all year

 

[petros]

Ahhh the halides. We use potassium chloride on SK roads. Cheap like borscht. Speaking of borscht, they use that too.

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

Thank god all the road salt, dog and bird sh!t gets flushed away when it rains. That's all I can say, about that there.

All dogs sh-it into little bags which are properly disposed of by their owners. I thought you knew that.