Not only is sale season (as noted earlier this morning) under way, so is fundraising-car-wash season. Above, you see a quick snap of the Seattle Rainiers 14U team‘s car wash that’s happening till 4 pm today at Complete Auto Repair on the west side of 35th at Holden (map here, but you can’t miss ’em; stretched out over about 2 blocks in both directions are some of the most enthusiastic sign-wavers we’ve ever seen). And the sun’s out just in time!
Parking lot car washes cause pollution and I’m disappointed to see WSB advocating that any of us patronize one. (I believe it may actually be illegal unless the water is treated before it runs off into the storm drains.)
Maybe the Seattle Rainiers 14U team could look into the car wash fund raiser program offered by the Puget Sound Car Wash Association.
There are a variety of fundraising car washes scheduled this spring around WS, including several associated with WSHS, and I can’t find any law prohibiting them. I did find this on the King County website
http://dnr.metrokc.gov/wlr/pi/carwash.htm
and would hope/expect that the fundraisers not happening at properly drainage-equipped sites are using these if needed — they are even available through Camp Long, according to this page:
http://www.cityofseattle.net/parks/Environment/learning.htm
Further research also notes that detailing businesses are expected to have the proper drainage; hard to research this at 9:40 pm Saturday but since they chose to have this at Complete Auto Repair and not just in any old parking lot anywhere, it could be that business site has the proper drainage – still checking.
Car washes themselves aren’t illegal, but according to http://www.charitycarwash.org discharging any water that isn’t cold, clean water into storm drains is what’s illegal.
Not one of the fundraising car washes I’ve ever stopped at in the past year or so here in WS has had a diverter or car wash kit. I hope this group had the proper drainage.
It’s up to each of us to choose whether we use one of these fund raiser car washes, and I want all of us to be aware of the facts before choosing to use them or not.
I have a message out to see if I can find that out. FWIW, there are no West Seattle car-wash participants listed on the charitycarwash.org site.
Why do you people care if its legal or not its a bunch of kids trying to raise money for there team relax
I actually got my car washed by them and they did a great job. I hope they raise the $ they needed. They were doing it at a local car repair place so it may have had the proper drainage.
RCW 90.48.080 — Discharge of polluting matter in waters prohibited. http://apps.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=90.48.080
The Federal Clean Water Act of 1977 makes it unlawful to for any person to discharge any pollutant from a point source into waterways, though I can’t find the specific language at the moment.
Why do I/we care? We need to clean up Puget Sound! Stormwater runoff, including these fundraising car washes (if they’re not set up properly with car wash kits or diverters), is the biggest source of pollution in Puget Sound!
I heard from someone that Brown Bear Car Wash has a charity car wash program and that its a better deal than the PSCWA program, like makes more money or something…
Thanks JimmyG for knowing whats up!
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