Your Car

Maintain your motors and stop vehicle fluid leaks.
Leaks of toxic fluids from cars build up on our roadways and get washed into the stormsewer during a rainfall or snowmelt.

• Keep your vehicles (and any other motors) serviced and get checked regularly at a qualified mechanic.
• Clean up leaks with cat litter and put an absorbent rag or carpet remnant under the leak to absorb the fluid until it is fixed
• Increase the permeability of your driveway surface, or direct driveway runoff to a permeable surface (garden or lawn) to allow leaking fluids to soak in and be cleaned by plants and soil. (See Permeable Paving in the Naturalize your Property! Section)

Take your car to a carwash:
Washing your car at home in a driveway or on the street creates a steady flow of detergent, grease and contaminants straight to our storm sewers. See the RiverSides RiverSafe Carwash Campaign for more information.

• Take your car to a carwash instead of washing it at home. Carwashes use less water than washing by hand, reuse washwater, and filter wastewater before discharging it to sanitary sewers.
• If you decide to wash a car at home:
• use buckets or a hose with a trigger nozzle
• wash it over a permeable surface like a lawn so that water will infiltrate and be cleaned in the soil (avoid parking over tree roots and avoid splashing onto sensitive garden areas that may be damaged by detergents)
• use as little detergent as possible (instead, scrub a bit harder) and choose biodegradable detergent.
• pour the wastewater into a sink or toilet, not the stormsewers

Resources

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