Washing a Car in Your Own Driveway in Washington State is a Crime

Its illegal to wash your car here in Santa Fe, NM. But for a different reason. They dont want us wasting water.

It's common in all European Union countries too.

I'll just redirect the water into a nearby creek instead of storm drains, and that should make it all hunky-dory, right?

The automated car wash is a good ole slice of Americana too. They even wrote a song about it. And besides, salmon.

i wonder if this is in a partial attempt to decrease the "dead zones" in the ocean around there. totally am for the law though.

Unfortunately, not exactly true:

http://www.ecy.wa.gov/news/2008news/2008-266.html

I was under the impression there that it had been illegal for quite some time. Although at the time I thought it was part of their water conservation efforts (in seattle, anyway). I was just a short term visitor though.

kid_icarus, what do you think the car wash places do? I'll wager most of them drain into the storm systems anyway.

I'd also wager that sewage treatment doesn't remove soap from wastewater.

On a somewhat related note: In Washington State, rainwater is considered property of the state, making it technically illegal to catch & save rainwater for house plants. How long till they figure out how to enforce that one?

Yeah, nothing strange here in Australia either. Washing the car is illegal anywhere except a car-wash, because of the wastage of water.

this is why my car is so dirty

This was shocking to me as a WA resident who has been watching this story, and as Ken points out, it's not true. They've been mulling it over. USA Today is crap.

This isn't really as big of a deal as it sounds, you can still wash your car as long as it's parked in the grass or a gravel driveway.

Water management will be a concern as big as house heating, so it's good news politicians are getting serious about it.

As for the brake dust, it will be released in streams while driving in the rain as well, so...?

Curious ... I've never seen someone in the average suburban subdivision park their car on the front lawn to wash it. Aren't there rules against that (for appearance's sake, I guess), or just the fear of messing up the lawn?

Why do you need to get your car so clean? Does it drive faster with less dust?

@ heyitse, it actually saves gas by making the aerodynamics of the vehicle work like they're supposed to, dirt-free.

@ Christophe, i'm skeptical that rain washes off brake dust, as I gaze upon my rained upon wheels. I like to hand wash at those coin operated places that are actually concrete walls.

It seems like a good idea, but what about the industrial debris that already washes down the storm drain as it is? Drips of oil, rubber residue from tires on the street, exhaust residue, random bits of garbage, cigarette butts (the WORST!), etc. Unless they scrub the roads hospital-clean every day, it's a bit futile, don't you think?

Not that I don't endorse any measure to keep the streams clean, of course. I've watched some very beautiful areas get really mucked up by all the trash us humans generate and any efforts we put forth to reduce that are great.

--TwoDragons

Georgia was also under a water ban all summer. Only the 40,000 illegal aliens in north west Georgia had clean cars.

It was just a few weeks ago that you could wash your car on an odd-even basis according to your house number. Mine is Saturday morning before 10 am. No watering after 10 am..

Most car washes have a trap in there system to catch the oil & other stuff before it gets into the municipal system. Some of the newer car washes even recycle the bulk of their water thru filters and reuse on the next car.

Did people not notice the comment about it being not true?

It amazing what people will try to pull over on us in the name of environmentalism.

If you can find it, watch Penn and Teller's debunk of our recycling system. I believe it was on their show "Bulls**t"... season 2?

Johnny Cat: If you actually read the story before commenting you'll find it is completely accurate: The Department of Ecology can't enforce this; it's going to get local municipalities do so. And they're not banning washing cars; it's the runoff.

Great Britain's in the EU and I've never heard of this here. Not that I was my car.

We rarely wash the car. Our neighbour makes up for it (their cars get weekly washings, whether they need them or not).

at first glance, it does seem odd, but the environmental impact really is significant with all the runoff and added water usage. we did a story on this earlier this week:

http://planetgreen.discovery.com/tech-transport/diy-car-wash.html

not saying it should be illegal, but washing your own car isn't the greenest way to go.

we can solve so many problems like this with some simple solutions. beside the ways laid out in the article presented by ken, why not try these things as well:

to combat the issue of wasting water, why not collect it, filter it, and re-use it for future car washing in the same location?

to combat the issue of hazardous cleaners running off into rivers and such, why not use biodegradable soaps and cleaners that are safe for the environment?

to combat the issue of using coal/oil to power the carwash, why not install solar panels on the roof?

we are so smart, yet, play dumb when it comes to treating our planet the way it needs to be treated. didn't we come from the earth? how is it so hard for us to nurture it the same way it nurtured us? the "big" companies of the world need to get on the bandwagon because there is only so much we can do individually. large companies receive government grants all the time to expand their business, why not use them on renewable energy sources and make human pollution a thing of the past? yes, i understand it is impossible to get rid of ALL human pollution, hell even cows contribute a large portion of pollution to the air and they don't have big sexy brains like we do.