Pollution from car washing and storm water detention facilities.

[E.T.C.]

There is a proposed rule in Clark County Washington to prohibit people
from washing their cars in their driveways, the intent is to reduce
the amount of detergents from this activity from reaching the areas
streams. Some of the older storm water systems in the area drain
strait into streams, whereas new construction is required to provide
detention of storm water in facilities that are suppose to trap
pollutants. As a Fisheries Biologist I have seen the damage that
urban runoff can cause to streams.

My company, www.etcEnvironmental.net, has designs detention ponds into
all of our projects, as we are required to do, and should be required
to do. We also take a certain pride in integrating these into the
landscape rather than just building your typical "bio-jails". Our
facilities are designed to meet code requirements, which we assume are
adequate to provide treatment of urban run-off to a point where it can
be discharged into streams without causing problems.

My point is that these facilities are suppose to be removing typical
urban runoff pollutants, including detergents from car washing. As
communities, we have spent millions of dollars building these things,
costs that are passed onto the home owners. They should derive some
enjoyment of that expenditure, such as being able to wash thier cars.
If detention ponds are doing their job, maybe it would make more sense
to limit the ban on car washing to neighborhoods that lack these
facilities. If they are not doing their job, we need to know this so
we can do a better job designing them.