De Icer

[buttercup]

Last Sunday afternoon I was at Home Depot ( about 3:30 ) pm. The gentleman parked behind me had purchased 4 one gallon containers of RV anti freeze to use as an de-icer. I asked him if he knew how dangerous that is to the the environment and his reply, so what. I said it was wrong to do that and his next reply was ” you probably didn’t immunize your kids”. ( I strongly believe in it). He claimed it is not illegal to use anti freeze for de.-icing. I don’t believe that, I could be wrong, I’m morally against it. I took pictures of his license plate except he had none, he was driving a new BMW suv. Watch out please, wish I had been able to post this sooner.

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[mark47n]

Mr. BMW is wrong, it is illegal in Seattle, King County and, less specifically, in Washington. It’s listed under SMC22.802.020 as a prohibited discharge is punishable at a rate of $5000.day and would be liable for cleanup. Given that it’s being done deliberately it may be considered criminal. King County and Washington don’t spell it out quite so specifically but intentional discharge of hazardous chemicals is also illegal.

Alas, you’d have to actually watch him at it. Him just telling you is not sufficient for legal action.

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[2 Much Whine]

What I have to wonder is how you ascertained that he was using the RV anti-freeze as a de-icer rather than as. . . . .wait for it. . . . anti-freeze in his RV. I know if someone approached me in a parking lot and started acting judgmental about my anti-freeze purchase I might be inclined to share that I “mix it with my neighbor’s dog food to get the dog to stop barking.” Or I might be inclined to say I was using it as a de-icer. Neither of which statements would ever actually be true. Just wondering how a discussion of the intended use of anti-freeze ever comes about in a Home Depot parking lot. With that being said, if his intended use was actually as a de-icer he is not a good person.

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[TSurly]

Lots of ignorance on here. RV antifreeze relies on proplyene glycol for its de-icing and antifreezing properties, and is commonly used in POTABLE water sytems in RVs. Propylene glycol is only toxic in very high quantities, non-carcinogenic, and breaks down quickly to relatively benign conpounds in soil and groundwater (mostly commonly to lactic, formic, acetic, and oxalic acids).

Its also the primary ingredient in the windshield washer fluid that eveyone has been spraying over the last week, and what every plane at SecTac is coated with when temps drop.

It’s not what I would choose to use as a sidewalk de-icer, but it would certainly work.

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[buttercup]

I overheard him in the storevtell an employee who was trying to talk him out of it. When he came behind me in parking lot I asked him if using as de-icer. 2 Much Whine, thankyou for your input , I happen to care about my environment and as a citizen of West Seattle and the earth I would gladly speak up for it. People who sit on their butt and don’t do or say anything are people who are just as accountable as the ones who abuse it. I’m glad he’s not my neighbor. Would you mind him doing it next to your house and not say something. His aggressive answers to me indicated the accuracy of his intention.

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[mark47n]

@TSurly: The SMC doesn’t distinguish between types of antifreeze. Levels of toxicity are not necessarily relevant to the laws revolving around storm water, which is what this situation would be under. Also, most window washing fluids do not contain a deicer.

The water catchment systems in a runway are not a direct outlet to the storm water drainage system. It must be treated so that it meets certain requirement as dictated by the referenced SMC and is also governed by county, state and federal laws, as is storm water collected on other industrial sites.

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