Soap scum: banning driveway carwashes.

• Author: Mangu-Ward, Katherine
• Position: Citings - Brief article

THE STATE of Washington has ordered local governments to ban driveway car washing. Most storm drains in the Pacific Northwest are separate from sewers and dump water directly into streams and rivers without processing. Bill Moore, a water quality specialist at the state Department of Ecology, says he's concerned about metal particles from cars, as well as oil and soap runoff, which is toxic to salmon.

Not every town appreciates the mandate. Brian Carlson, public works director for Vancouver, a small city near the Oregon border, says he's happy to conduct a public awareness campaign about where the soap goes when Washingtonians dump their buckets. But he told The Oregonian, "We're not going to be car-washing bureaucrats run amok. We have higher priorities than that." Seattle is planning to institute a ban, however...