The next time you see grime on your car and decide to wash the car in the driveway or on the street hopefully you will think of this column. Washing your car in your driveway poses a significant threat to Oyster Bay's environmental health. According to the New York League of Conservation Voters Education Fund when we change the oil in our cars or wash them with detergents at home these pollutants run into storm drains and then directly into our waterways. In the Oyster Bay area this means that the pollutants run right into Oyster Bay Harbor where we swim and fish.

The storm drains on our local roadways do not have filtration systems that stop whatever goes in from getting into our waterways. Many of the storm drains have catch basins that literally catch debris. Most basins are only big enough to catch a few buckets full of sludge created by leaves. Although they sometimes do catch other debris they are not intended for the public to intentionally put in things as cigarette butts, bottles, papers, pet waste, and many other common things that the public puts into them. These are what regulators call nonpoint source pollution and they are poisoning the bay and its residents, including you and me. Furthermore, catch basins and storm drains are generally only cleaned by the local municipality 1-3 times a year. Now, imagine a cigarette or some other toxic item sitting in a catch basin and breaking into particles small enough to run into our waterways that we get drinking water from and swim in.

The main contributors of nonpoint source pollution are cars and trucks, including yours and mine. According to the International Car Wash Association there are nearly 100,000 car washes throughout the country and we spend billions of dollars each year keeping our cars clean than the federal government budgets for the undertakings of the Environmental Protection Agency. To the typical car-obsessed American environmental concerns are not a big motivator when it comes to car washing, but that is no excuse for polluting our neighbors, ourselves, and the local environment.

The catch here is that a properly cleaned car is not as bad an environmental offense as a dirty one. Cars produce all kinds of toxic waste. In addition to tailpipe emissions that lower air quality, they also shed things such as lead, zinc, fine rubber dust from tires, chromium, benzene, asbestos, rust, and oil. Much of this refuse winds up attaching onto other cars, forming the layer that makes up much of the grime on a dirty car.

The real trouble commences when it rains or you wash your car in your driveway or on the street. The toxic layer of grime runs off the car and onto the street, into the storm drain, and without treatment winds up in our creeks, the bay, underground drinking water supplies, and the Long Island Sound. You may say so what, because all of this goes down the storm drain and straight back to the environment. The problem is that the water becomes deadly to the fish and other creatures that live in it. It also becomes poisonous to you and me.

So what do we do? Washing the car at home is bad, but not washing it is also bad.

Washing a car at a professional car wash is actually environmentally friendly. Car washes divert toxic grime into the sewage treatment system, where it is processed like the toxic waste it is. Also, a growing trend is that car washes pre-treat their waste water by filtering or settling out the slime before reusing the water and then, finally, sending it to a sewage treatment plant. In some parts of the country this is economical for a car wash in an area where water prices are rising and droughts are becoming increasingly regular. Car washes also use about 1/3 or more less fresh water than washing the car at home.

To come to the point, professionally washing the filth off a car before it rains makes sense. If everyone did it, we could recapture most of the deadly stuff cars put into the environment. Unfortunately, drivers are less likely to wash their cars when it looks like rain, assuming that rain will take care of the mess for them and give that waxy shine that says to the world I have it together. We could also empty out the garage and use it for the car or maybe even get rid of cars altogether and choose to walk or even ride a bike. Then, we would not have to worry about getting the ego driven waxy shine, pay for environmental cleanups, shell out for a car, and add washing the car to our lengthy 'to do' lists. I am certain that as I write this column one of my neighbors is at home putting a polish on his car.

For more information about local boating or environmental issues please contact me at 922-0555 or JaimeVanDyke@gmail.com. Please also visit www.sagamoreyc.com or look up SagamoreRacing on Yahoo!Groups on the web.