Car Washes Conserve Water

• Clean Planet Car Wash uses water management technology developed through industry and university research that enables them to wash cars thoroughly with a fraction of the water a home car wash uses.
• State of the art water reclaim system.
• High-pressure nozzles and pumps at car washes are designed to get the most use out of water flow.
• Special pressure nozzles mix 50% air with water to create pressure without volume.
• A ten minute home wash can use as much as 140 gallons, based on engineering studies that show a 5/8” hose running at 50 psi uses 14 gallons of water per minute (WCA figures). Other estimates: San Francisco Water Dept- 180 gal. San Antonio Water System- 150 gal. City of Toronto- 116 gal.
• Clean Planet Car Wash equipment can clean a car in just a few minutes, using as little as 7 gallons net gallons of water per wash
• Comparison with other water uses: Dripping faucet: 25-30 gal./day Toilet flush: 5-7 gal. 10-minute shower: 25-50 gal. Washing machine at top water level: 60 gal. Brushing teeth: 2 gal.
• A car washed professionally does not waste water. There are few industries which use water as a resource that carefully manage water as well as the modern car wash.
• For most people, their car is their second most valuable asset. Keeping it clean extends the life of the car.
• Car washes provide jobs for thousands in the Puget Sound Region, and significantly contribute to its tax base.

Water Quality

• Wastewater from driveway and parking lot car washing flows into the storm water system and then into our waterways.
• Driveway and parking lot car washing discharge consists of oils, grease, elements from brake linings, rust, trace amounts of benzene and possibly chromium. Adding soap to the mix introduces phenols, dyes, acids, and ammonia.
• The Seattle Storm water Grading and Drainage Control Code listed unregulated car washing second in the eight high-risk pollution-generating activities.
• Past EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman has been quoted as saying, “It may seem like a small amount of oil and grease, but collectively, these little sources add up to (the equivalent of ) 23 Exxon Valdez oil spills in the continental United States per year.”
• Effluent from professional car wash facilities is filtered and piped to the sanitary sewer system.