ISSUE
How can washing your car in your own driveway be a problem for Long Island Sound?

Washing your vehicle can be one of the more harmful things done around the house. When you wash your car, truck, RV, or boat at home water running off generally finds its way to nearby storm drains. Storm drains carry excess rainwater directly into nearby waterways without any additional cleaning of that water. Since local waterways in the watershed of the Sound generally feed into the Sound, whatever runs off of your driveway winds up untreated in Long Island Sound, so putting anything down a storm drain is the equivalent of dumping it straight into your local lake, river or Sound. So why is that a bad thing?

PROBLEM
The problem with washing your vehicle at home is two-fold:

1) excess water usage

2) pollution of local water ways and invariably Long Island Sound.

CAR WASH OPTIONS AND WATER CONSUMPTION
• Washing your car at home: at least 50 gallons

– A standard 5/8"garden hose running at 50 pounds per square inch uses 10 gallons of water per minute (this is without the use of a nozzle that stops the continuous flow of water).
– The average person who takes extreme care not to waste water, takes 5-6 minutes to wash and rinse their car for a total consumption of 50-60 gallons. For individuals who allow the water to run while they clean, this number can jump to a staggering 150-200 gallons.

• Washing your car at a self-serve car wash: a total of 12 to 14 gallons for the average amount of dirt (a very dirty car would require more)

– Foaming Brush uses approximately 1 quart of water during a four minute cycle;
– Pre-Soak uses approximately 3 quarts of water to cover a car;
– Tire Cleaning uses less than 1 quart of water per car;
– Spot-Free Rinse uses approximately 1.5 gallons of water per minute.
– High-Pressure Wash (approximately 1000 PSI) uses about 3.5 gallons of water per minute.
– High-Pressure Wax uses about 3.5 gallons of water per minute.
– High-Pressure Rinse uses approximately 3.5 gallons of water per minute.

• Professional car washing: a total of l1.1 gallons (this number is for the average compact car, SUVs and trucks combine to bring the average of all vehicles to 20 gallons)

– Flow rate: 2.6 minutes wash and rinse at 3 gallons per minute; 5.3 minutes pre-soak foaming brush and tire & engine cleaning at 0.6 gallons per minute.
– Thus the average water used for wash and rinse is 7.9 gallons and the average water used for pre-soak foaming brush and tire & engine cleaning is 3.2 gallons.

The water from your carwash contains pollutants ranging from oil, grease, and suspended solids to detergents. Detergents, such as the carwash or liquid soap can seriously affect the water quality of local waterways. They are a universal contaminant of public water supplies. Some of pollutants they contain are as follows: phosphates, sodium, potassium, boron salts, enzymes, cellulose ethers, flurescers, silicates and sulphates with phosphates being the biggest offender.

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1.International Carwashing Association- http://www.carwashes.com/environ/
2. International Carwashing Association