Tony Shelton
BS Detector, Esquire
I just accepted it as the Gospel truth that we can't dump anything but clean water or storm runoff down the storm drain.
Looking around the Nevada state web site I found all kinds of permits you can BUY to dump construction runoff and industrial runoff. You have to pay to play looks like.
I just read the entire CWA here:http://epw.senate.gov/water.pdf
I can't for the life of me find where dumping wash water without chemicals is in violation of the act. Maybe I missed it.
What I did find was tens of pages of setup for fees and permits to ALLOW discharge into the storm drains.
There's even a section where local governments are told (in 1987 or 88) to determine what discharges are considered exempt.
Did we, as an industry miss an opportunity to stand up and defend ourselves in 1988?
I looked up many cities and most of them have excemptions for "street wash water". One example is here: http://www.ci.gilbert.az.us/ordinances/stormwater.cfm
I also found them in California and Colorado.
How is it that street washing with all it's oil and transmission fluid and everything else got an exemption and we couldn't get one for washing the sidewalk next to the street?
Who dropped the ball?
Can we pick it up again and start working on a national exemption?
What are we afraid of?
Looking around the Nevada state web site I found all kinds of permits you can BUY to dump construction runoff and industrial runoff. You have to pay to play looks like.
I just read the entire CWA here:http://epw.senate.gov/water.pdf
I can't for the life of me find where dumping wash water without chemicals is in violation of the act. Maybe I missed it.
What I did find was tens of pages of setup for fees and permits to ALLOW discharge into the storm drains.
There's even a section where local governments are told (in 1987 or 88) to determine what discharges are considered exempt.
Did we, as an industry miss an opportunity to stand up and defend ourselves in 1988?
I looked up many cities and most of them have excemptions for "street wash water". One example is here: http://www.ci.gilbert.az.us/ordinances/stormwater.cfm
I also found them in California and Colorado.
How is it that street washing with all it's oil and transmission fluid and everything else got an exemption and we couldn't get one for washing the sidewalk next to the street?
Who dropped the ball?
Can we pick it up again and start working on a national exemption?
What are we afraid of?