Car washes insist they’re low water users
Car washes are working hard on a PR campaign to educate the public about their water usage. To their credit, car washes use a rather low amount of water — less than 1% of the total water usage in a given municipality. Specifically, the average professional car wash uses between 34-50 gallons.
However, it still seems to me that washing your car is just a great way to waste water. Even if it only used one gallon per wash, it’s still a gallon of water that doesn’t need to be wasted. I’ve said before that I feel bad for people that are losing jobs as a result of the drought, but I think preserving our water supply should be the top priority.
No one is really sure how much water we have left, but all of them have it measured in a matter of months. With a dry winter coming, we are almost surely going to be in a critical state by spring. Whether we actually run out or not is still unknown, but it’s entirely possible.
I appreciate the efforts that car washes are putting forth to conserve water, but I just think it’s a vanity we can do without for a while. Be proud of your dirty car.
November 12th, 2007 at 12:25 pm
Well, I’ll avoid washing my car for the sake of the drought, but I’d rather keep it clean to prolong the life of the paint.
Dirt is abrasive, and often acidic. As are the bugs that impacted on the front. Keeping your car clean will prolong the life of the paint.
Of course, the way most Atlanta drivers drive, you have to worry more about the dents…
–jc
November 25th, 2007 at 9:11 am
While I agree with saving every drop of water you can, where do you start pointing fingers first? Is it the homeowner who uses more water than a commericial user? What if we said that all water used had to be returned to the sewer system. I just read in the AJC that the water police in Las Vegas made a homeowner that was draining a pool return the water to the sewer system so it could be treated and returned to Lake Meade. If we required all water to be connecting to the sewer system you would not be able to build houses on septic tanks. There are many questions to ask and probably as many possible solutions. The most important question is who is the biggest waster of water. Carwashes will not fall into this category. If a carwash uses 10 gallons or 50 gallons one huge benefit is this water is returned to the sewer system to be treated and returned to our lakes. The only loss of water is the minimal amount left on the car after the wash and a small amount the evaporates. Essentially, all water used in the carwash is recycled on site or at the municipal sewer system thus there is virtually no water lost!