Go Green At The Car Wash

When you wash your car in the driveway, you may be thinking clean, but are you being green? Probably not.

"The problem is that all the oil and grease that you are washing off your car, and the dirt and the sediment goes into the streams. Plus, the detergent creates oxygen demand on the water in the stream which will actually cause fish-kills," said Roy Foster with the Public Works Quality Assurance Department.

In Tulsa, fleet vehicles cannot be washed unless the runoff is captured. So, The News On 6 washes its NewsOn6.com Scions in a carwash where the runoff is captured and eventually treated.

"One hundred percent of the water used here at Clearwater and commercial car washes in general, goes into the sanitary sewer for processing. Therefore, you don't contaminate the rivers or streams or anything like that," said Bill Farr of Clearwater car wash.

It is legal to wash personal vehicles in your driveway, but it isn't great for the environment.

"We would prefer that people use car washes and direct it towards the sanitary sewer," said Foster.