Illegal Dumping by Car Washes; Pollution and Environmental Issues
By: Lance Winslow
Most all car washes collect their wash water affluent and treat it somewhat and discharge the rest to the city sewer system or POTW. About half of the mobile detailers do this too now. Most of the fleet truck washing mobile companies collect and remove their wash water as well. Unfortunately that leaves the rest, who are polluters and this hurts our water supplies and adversely affects the industry.
For those good stewards of the environment, I salute your efforts. I also believe that car wash owners who keep acids and chemicals to a minimum are indeed helping the industry. I applaud those that do not use acid in their wash process. I think illegal polluters who own car washes are very bad for the industry especially when it hits the newspaper. Yes it hurts us too, we run the CarWashGuys.com .
Our franchisees, which are mobile follow the rules, so do our truck washes and fixed car washes, as well as our aircraft wash units and boat cleaning units. Franchising is an Independent business relationship and no cases of environmental issues have come back to the franchisor, only one ADA case in the Hotel Industry was even close. Yet we still believe it is our duty to monitor our franchisee’s wash process.
The are still some rogue hold outs in the industry and are slowly being caught by environmental enforcement personnel, but unfortunately there is still a problem in the industry and these issues are serious and must be dealt with. Think on this in 2006.
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