One Texas car wash employee raised concerns after a manager allegedly pumped wastewater into a neighboring field to avoid paying for another professional drain cleaning.
The cashier also said employees had been told they would have to climb into the clogged drainage trench and excavate the sludge themselves. The person took to Reddit's r/legaladvice forum to share their story and seek input.
Here's what to know
"Is it legal for the car wash I work for to pump trench sludge into a field?" the original poster asked. "Recently the trench where the water, mud, and carwash chemicals in our car wash tunnel drains into has become clogged and can no longer drain properly, causing it to overflow and requiring us to close until it could be pumped out with an electric pump and firehose."
They said the corporate office would not pay for a second cleaning in the quarter, so the general manager "cut a hole in a grate at the entrance of our tunnel and runs the pump 24/7 … draining it into our parking lot, letting it drain into the vacant lot we butt up against. I feel like this is an incredibly dangerous and illegal situation."
Commenters said the situation was in fact probably illegal. "The chances of it being legal to pump car wash drainage into an open field as described are slim to none, leaning much more toward the none side of things," one said. "You can contact your local zoning and code enforcement folks and/or the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality."
Another wrote: "Absolutely not. Carwash waste is wildly toxic. Report that. Your corporate will get fined far more than the cost of cleaning out the trench and will learn a big lesson about cutting corners."
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A third user added, "There are companies that provide pump services (as your boss knows), and the reason they provide these services is because it's against EPA regulations to dump hazardous waste."
Someone else, who said they worked on "the safety side of this," urged the OP: "Do not go into that trench. Period."
In a comment, the OP wrote: "Thank you. I mainly needed to know exactly who to contact about it and have already made a complaint."
Where can I learn more?
Concerns about where wastewater and other toxins end up reach well beyond this Texas car wash.
• A Delaware company sought to discharge treated wastewater into Texas' Lake Wichita daily.
• In Massachusetts, an odor log recorded 24 complaints near a wastewater plant, prompting residents' demands for answers.
• In the U.K., sewage discharge closed bathing waters again, drawing criticism from an MP.
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