Do You Recover?

[jkwalz]

Do you recover your waste water?

[One Tough Pressure]

Touchy subject that many will not vote or reply to. 46 views 7 votes says alot right there.

[Dave O]

Yes but of course. Is there any other way?

Alan
We just got back from jobs out of town. Will be answering you Email here LOL

[jkwalz]

Touchy subject that many will not vote or reply to. 46 views 7 votes says alot right there.

My neighbor is a geologist who owns a company that removes burried fuel tanks from gas stations.

When she found out I started a PW company she said she thinks that waste water discharge (especially from Pressure Washers) was going to be a very hot topic and the focus of a lot of attention by the EPA soon.

It just got me thinking about it. It seems to me that a lot of people might say they "recover" but don't really.

JKW

[Jon]

Your neighbor is right on one thing, it is a very hot topic and has been for a long time.

What is happening is the local and federal EPA is finally starting to enforce the rules, some way over doing it, some very lax but making the effort.

HOT TOPIC indeed and getting hotter, can this industry handle all the heat, can it handle the few who got caught and now think it is ok to follow others taking pictures and turning them in?

Is that fair, is it even really legal?

[jkwalz]

HOT TOPIC indeed and getting hotter, can this industry handle all the heat, can it handle the few who got caught and now think it is ok to follow others taking pictures and turning them in?

Is that fair, is it even really legal?

I admit to having very limited experience but if the collection of waste water becomes a rigorously enforced practice then what I suspect will happen is that the competition will thin out very quickly. Not only that but it will become much more difficult (expensive) for someone to start up a PW business.

As far as getting caught yourself and then taking photos of and turning in competitors is concerned- Actions have consequences. By this I am refering to the picture taker. The "consequences" might end up being not what you expected and might land you in the hospital!

JK

[Scott Stone]

I have had recovery equipment since 1995. I am in your market, in fact I saw you going down 24th st at Van Buren on Saturday morning, about 10 AM. I do recover when necessary, but I have found that there are many occasions when it is not necessary to recover, due to the situation and location of the customer.
I have ZERO off property discharge, because of the types of clients that I have.
So the answer is Yes I recover, when needed.

You might want to check with the City of Phoenix on what their recovery requirements are, as well as Tempe. They are the two most stringent in our area.

Scott Stone

[jkwalz]

I have had recovery equipment since 1995. I am in your market, in fact I saw you going down 24th st at Van Buren on Saturday morning, about 10 AM. I do recover when necessary, but I have found that there are many occasions when it is not necessary to recover, due to the situation and location of the customer.
I have ZERO off property discharge, because of the types of clients that I have.
So the answer is Yes I recover, when needed.

You might want to check with the City of Phoenix on what their recovery requirements are, as well as Tempe. They are the two most stringent in our area.

Scott Stone

Hi Scott-

I guess I really need to look closely at local law to see exactly when I would need to recover. It was my assumption that you needed to recover no matter where you worked unless the water stays on-property (as you say it does with your customers).

Thanks for the response!

JKW

[Scott Stone]

That is about right, it cannot enter storm drains either.

Scott

[Ron Musgraves]

This is a hot topic, yet most still dont get it?.......

[Beth n Rod]

Ron,
Why not just share what you know you are itching to say? C'mon. You know you're dying to post...
Beth

[mattia]

I recover my water on some jobs. Being a core business of hood cleaning, I trap alot of my water on the inside, filters is the only thing that I wash out doors and I have a way to get around this. Most of my jobs do not have water leaving the property.


Epa needs to worry about the farmers and large mills around this area and stop worrying about the small fry who makes under a 100 a year.

They are scared to go after bigger fish since they have money to spend on a lawyer.

Matt

[Ron Musgraves]

I've said it about 1000 times, Sorry Beth. This one they just need to call or research. I dont have time for a 10 page report. call if you want to know.

[Ernie Greese]

Serious issue, indeed! Read on another board about a truck washer with a suction system running on a generator. The generator ran out of gas, stopped and the water started overflowing his dams. Just so happened the water department inspector came along with a crew. Opened the manhole and ordered him to suck the little soap and water out of the storm drain. No fine just a lot of finger waving. He had to write a letter of explanation to the city. If he didn't have a sucking system the city would have really nailed him. EPA would have had him pay to have the sewer sucked clear to the nearest river according to the city man. At least a hundred grand. And it ain't covered by insurance. I have started noticing alot more dirty trucks, at least around here. We dropped out of truck washing before the fit hit the shan. Companies just don't want to pay for your extra expense and if you get caught they'll find somebody else, maybe even cheaper.

The end is near!

[newlook]

This topic has been dialogued so many times both on a formal and informal stage. The Clean Water Act is here to stay ~ period. These are the standards for us to use ~ whether we like them or not! I mentioned before that this is a serious enough issue for the PWNA to tackle and provide direction to both members and non-members.

One idea is to have it MANDATORY for all future members of the PWNA to have an acceptable water recovery system in place before they can become a member of that organization. All current members will have one year to get their recovery system in place.

The PWNA has not embraced this controversial subject and understandably for many reasons but I would think that they could take the lead on this. From what I can see and read, the PWNA is a very good organization with a tremendous amount of resources.

Yes, the overall responsibility to get into compliance falls on each and everyone of us. Please do not misread into this post ~ I am not even suggestion that the burden be placed on the PWNA ~ it is not their job nor should it be their responsibility to get us into compliance. I am suggestion that they raise the bar on this particular subject to dispell some the negative proclivity around their existence.

If you ask if we are recovering? The honest answer is "No". Sure we throw down some absorbent pads and say we are recovering. Are we making strides to do better in this? Certainly we are. We have a system that we are looking at that can get us in compliance.

There is no easy answer to this except ......you gotta get into compliace...period!