Water Education Foundation
This is just one post in the Environment & Water Category
Click here to view all posts

Carwashes don’t have to pollute: water collection kits keep runoff out of Bay waters

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 8, 2008 at 8:38 pm

From the San Jose Mercury News:

The season of the fundraiser carwash is here, and some cities across the Bay Area are quietly pushing schools, churches and scout groups to take up a little-known green measure to reduce the runoff of pollution into bay waters: a carwash water collection kit.

The kit collects dirty, potentially contaminated water from a carwash and pumps it into a sewage drain or a landscaped area. Non-profit groups in Palo Alto, Mountain View, Campbell, Los Gatos and Monte Sereno have been using the kits for years as part of a state requirement that cities reduce runoff to storm drains.

Sunnyvale is the latest Bay Area city to purchase the kits, loaning them to local groups, not just as a way to reduce pollution runoff but also to teach residents an important environmental lesson, said Kristy McCumby, Sunnyvale’s environmental specialist.

“I thought it was a good idea,” said Claire Umeda, 16, a Fremont High School student who helped organize a recent carwash at her Sunnyvale school using the kit. She and her colleagues at the school’s Key Club organized the carwash to raise funds for the American Cancer Society.

The students raised $400, said Umeda, who will be a junior in the fall. City water and environmental officials are hoping that more groups will use the kits, and in the process raise their environmental awareness quotients. “What’s good for charity,” Umeda said, “is good for the environment.”

“Only rain in the drain” is the motto. Find out more from the San Jose Mercury News by clicking here.

July 8, 2008 · Filed Under Environment & Water

Comments

Leave a Reply