Short Run to the Sea: Clean Car, Clean Water

Bullwings: Orcas Issues is proud to collaborate with the Stewardship Network of the San Juans to bring its series, “A Short Run to the Sea” to our readers.

We will reproduce daily articles from the series created and published on Stewardship Connections, an electronic publication of the San Juan County Marine Resources Committee and Lead Entity for Salmon Recovery.

Clean Car, Clean Water

by Shona Aitken,

How often do you wash your car?  Are you out there every weekend washing, waxing and polishing, or do you just wait till the “island patina” builds up to the point you can’t tell what color the car is, then hope it rains heavily?

A more important question is WHERE do you wash your car? Do you wash it on the street, in your driveway or take it to a carwash? Most of us rely on a car or truck to get around the islands, so how we maintain and clean our vehicles can have a major effect on how many dangerous contaminants get into our local waterways.

The problem is that the dirt on our cars is not just “good clean dirt” you could grow tomatoes in.  It also includes exhaust particles, brake pad dust, and gasoline and oil residues which contain, among other things, zinc, lead and copper. This gunk, combined with surfactants in the soap we use to clean our cars, turns into a cocktail that can have lethal effects on freshwater and marine life.

If you wash your car on the street or on a concrete or asphalt parking area, the dirty water can’t soak in and runs downhill, probably into the nearest storm drain.  Before you know it some of that contaminated water is in the bay. A better choice is a gravel or grassy area where the dirty water can run off onto grass and soil. As the water soaks in, a lot of the pollutants are gradually filtered out as the water seeps between the plant roots and soil particles, so very little ends up in streams, ponds or sea water.

Another important issue is car maintenance. That little drip of oil or other fluid on your garage floor may not seem like a big deal, but the chances are that your car is also depositing small drips as you drive along the road or when you are parked at the grocery store. Next time it rains, this washes off the asphalt into drains or ditches and eventually into a pond or into the sea.

A few small drips may not seem like much, but if you multiply this by the number of vehicles on the islands, there is potential for a lot of pollutants to get into our water.

As car owners we can each make a big difference if we

1. Wash cars where dirty water can soak into soil and vegetation.
2. Use small amounts of biodegradable soap.
3. Take the car to a commercial car wash or a local “Green Carwash” event.
4. Keep it well maintained to prevent leaks.

Thank you.  The crabs, mussels and shrimp will appreciate it!

Shona Aitken is the Education Coordinator for the Wolf Hollow Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, located on San Juan Island

For the full series of articles, go to www.shortruntothesea.org

The San Juan Marine Resources Committee (MRC) was started in 1996 as a grassroots effort to establish local management of marine resources.  It was the prototype for the creation of a federally sponsored network of seven MRCs working in northern Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca.  The MRCs are supported by federal funding through the Northwest Straits Marine Conservation Initiative.

The “Short Run to the Sea” campaign has been supported by the Education, Communication and Outreach Network (ECONet) of the Puget Sound Partnership.