[StainlessDeal]

I am relatively new in this business, and there are some people here already doing it. That said, PWing as a profession is not well-known in Nebraska. There are some fleet washers, and one guy I know of (but not personally) that does wood, and then about ten thousand fools doing splash & dash jobs as a way to beer money. The most reputable guys I've seen are some window-washers and car-lot guys. (One of the largest car-lot guys told me that wood restoration was a perfect way to make nobody happy because the work is too expensive for the area to bear)

There is no awareness of regulations on the public's part, and some of the local business owners are amazingly high-strung about it. When my bids mention reclaim, they go ape in a hurry. I've let commercxial business pretty much slide because of this.

The camel-back breaking straw was a pair of bids I gave early this summer: On one the prospect became irate when I mentioned reclaim as part of the bid on acid washing aluminum trailers. The spot I was to use was on top of a storm-drain that was a 24 inch (or so) shotgun pipe a quarter mile long straight to a local lake used as a fishing/outdoor rec area.

I thanked the guy for his time and declined to bid.

The second was a chain battery store in town that had badly stained sidewalks and delivery areas. The parking spaces were slick with oil, and the dumpster pad/ loading area was rusty with battery acid. They had never heard of the CWA were pretty sure they weren't covered by it, and were shocked at my price. When I tried to explain the processes (already spelled out in my bid) the assistant manager ran me off, accusing me of trying to fleece and bully them.

I'm not angry, nor am I veangeful, but I do fish the local lakes, and my dog drinks from them all summer long. It seems that the point of the laws is to protect the water, not provide me with a service to sell at an outrageous price, and I'm irked that the water gets dirtied by people doing work incorrectly, that I bid right.

And Alan, I hear you, I may not know what remediation method they are using, but I don't suspect that two guys in a Gremlin with a Lowes' cold water unit and a visible twelve pack are using something planted inside the stormdrain their water is running into. lol I'd sooner believe they had Harry Potter down there doing his bit for the CWA.

I didn't turn anybody in, mostly because I strongly suspected I was the only pwer these folks had talked to. Why make a mess in my own nest? I just posed the question because I'm curious where the opinions would fall, and because after walking my hound at one of the lakes in question the other day I saw foam and open water in the otherwise frozen area where the pipe I mentioned before drains.

Frankly, I feel a bit guilty and ashamed. Did I do the wrong thing because it was easy? Or was I right to MMOB?