California Car Wash Fundraisers and Environmental Law

Many nonprofit groups are upset that they are allowed to hold fundraisers for car washes in some California cities. It’s not that government officials are against their groups raising money, it’s that they’re worried about where the dirty, soapy water goes. It’s a problem and it might be good if he understood some of the history behind the rules instead of getting upset about it.

HISTORY

Well, it all started many years ago when Congress passed the Federal Clean Water Act in 1972 during the Nixon Administration. This was in response to major pollution problems related to the contamination of the nation’s waterways by factories, strip mining, and sewage treatment plants or the lack thereof. It was actually a big problem. It was an ecosystem disaster that caused illness and death to wildlife and some people. When it was discovered how serious the problem really was, the federal government authorized states to deal with problems within their state. States have enacted state laws to help fix the problem. Meanwhile, the federal government tightened standards by forcing states to tighten their standards or break them. With the threat of withholding federal funds for the states, the states continued to make more and more laws. Obviously, the industry was not happy and even the government agencies could not comply with the laws that they made. Therefore, target dates were enacted to allow time for everyone to comply. Overnight, environmental consulting firms sprang up along with a whole new industry of manufacturing environmental equipment and products, many of which weren’t even compliant themselves. Of course, all good things take time, and cleaning our water is obviously a good thing.

The state of California divided the state into nine different regions realizing that each region had different pollution problems based on the types of industry, demographics, and population of the areas. These regions were called ‘Regional Water Quality Control Districts’ (RWQCDs). All of these were controlled by the State Board which was defined by the Federal Clean Water Act as the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB). Once the problem was broken down into smaller parts, things started to improve.

The SWRCB was formed in California and is commonly called ‘The State Board’. The State Board regulates Water Quality Control, which is any activity or factor that may affect the quality of the state’s waters and includes the prevention and correction of water pollution and disturbances. This sounds very broad and the State Board has a lot of power. Fortunately, with the combined efforts of industry, government, and the people, they now understand the issues well enough to make smart decisions and fully understand that their organization needs to make money. Therefore, instead of preventing and prohibiting activities, everyone is working on solutions and procedures to enable responsible downloading creating a win-win situation.

Recently, the State Water Quality Control Boards asked counties to submit approval and receive permits to discharge the same waters they have been discharging for years. These permissions were called NPDES permissions. This stands for National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System. Most counties assigned an existing department to work on this permit. Most likely it will be the county Flood Control Department. Unfortunately, this part of the county deals with permits for land development, bridges, infrastructure, etc. Until now, they knew very little about the contamination. Some counties turned this responsibility over to the Department of Environmental Health Services, which in turn worked with the Department of Flood Control that controls storm drains. NPDES permits are state-approved for local county urban stormwater discharges. Every city in every county through municipal codes is supposed to pass ordinances and come up with a plan to control their local runoff/pollution. The county remains accountable to the state and the states to the federal government. The NPDES requirements are an outgrowth of the EPA, the Environmental Protection Agency, although they are locally enforced, permitted, and regulated by cities, counties, and states.

The actual law used to enforce these statutes can be found in 13.260 – 13.265 of the California Water Code. At one point he actually says:

“No person or persons may discharge water into any waterway without a permit or a permit from a regional state water quality control board.”

This sounds pretty absolute, doesn’t it? It is against the law for you to take a glass of water from your sink, walk to a storm drain, and pour the water down the drain. Obviously, this in itself would not harm the environment, but by giving absolute power, the Regional Water Quality Control Boards can look at everything on a case-by-case basis. So get serious about your water after washing those cars.

RAINWATER DISCHARGE

City, county, and state governments know that car washes have always been a favorite fundraiser for sports teams, scout troops, schools, and other nonprofit groups. Due to low capital investment costs, because wash fundraisers can generate significant amounts of profit. For the last ten years, government agencies, especially in California, have been working with industry to find solutions to clean our water. Today, the waterways of the United States are significantly cleaner than in the past, although many regions are more densely populated. It has been working very well. Now we go one step further. No contamination from any source, even mobile dog groomers. Only in the last few years have government agencies decided that the adverse environmental impact is too great to allow fundraising for car washes. Coupled with strong lobbying from fixed-site car wash owners, some cities and counties have banned these fundraisers unless certain procedures are followed to ensure wash water does not enter storm drains, ditches, or pathways. fluvial.

Their reasoning is as follows: Dirty water containing soaps and detergents, exhaust residues, gasoline, and motor oils wash off cars and flow into nearby storm drains. Unlike the water we use in our homes and businesses that goes down the drain and is treated at sewer treatment plants, the water that goes into storm drains flows directly into rivers, bays, oceans, and lakes without any treatment . Obviously, a car wash fundraiser by itself will create little to no adverse environmental impact. But government agencies know that collectively, car wash fundraisers contribute to significant pollution.

They also realize that biodegradable soaps don’t lessen the impact. This is because biodegradable just means that the soap will break down over time. So does plutonium, it just takes longer. Soaps and car wash products are still toxic to aquatic life, even if they are biodegradable. Think about this a bit. If you really want the city to let you do a fundraising car wash, you’re going to have to figure out how to keep dirty, soapy water out of the storm drain.