Regulations: ban on washing vehicles or equipment in front of your home all year round
Regulations: ban on washing your vehicles or equipment in front of your home all year round - what can we do or not? What are we risking? As an individual or professional or association?
Because you must comply with the standards in the event of an inspection so as not to risk a fine or a cessation of your activity for professionals.
and because your job is not the management of your effluent.
Oceania Environment reminds you of certain regulatory points - often unknown or underestimated - or poorly respected with poorly adapted washing and effluent management.
When washing vehicles or equipment, several types of effluents must be treated: hydrocarbons, detergents, (and for certain professions wine-growing effluents-food fats - water earth herbs plant waste in abundance (e.g. golf courses) etc... )
Article 99-3 of the Departmental Health Regulations :
Washing vehicles is prohibited on public roads, private roads open to public traffic, banks, ports and quays as well as in public parks and gardens.
This ban primarily pursues an objective of combating soil and water pollution , to prevent hydrocarbon residues, oils and that toxic products contained in certain cleaning products are not dumped into the sewers.
In your garden or your yard: it depends
Very good, but when you have a garden or a courtyard in which you can park your vehicle, is washing still prohibited?
It all depends on the configuration of the place and especially where the residue from your wash will go.
It therefore remains prohibited in the majority of cases. Because even if the garden is closed, it is the dumping of water on the public highway that is prohibited. Therefore, under no circumstances should contaminated water be able to spill into the street, for example if the ground is slightly inclined (which is often the case in front of a garage entrance to encourage natural flow rather than flooding of said garage).
On the other hand, washing your vehicles in your enclosed garden, on grass or gravel for example, where the water will infiltrate without joining the reprocessing network is therefore not prohibited since it is a private property.
However, this does not solve the spillage of hydrocarbons and solvents that may be present, but this time you are only polluting your soil... provided that there is not a river nearby or a water table below.
To avoid this, we could be tempted to install a water recovery system, for example in the center of a concrete slab with a grid which flows into the collection network.
Except that here it is the Public Health Code which comes into play and requires expressly requesting authorization from the establishment in charge of the network (town hall, mixed union, etc.). Suffice to say that there is little chance of obtaining an agreement.
Article L1331-10 of the Public Health Code :
Any discharge of wastewater other than domestic into the public collection network must be previously authorized by the mayor or, when responsibility for collection at the location of the discharge has been transferred to a public establishment of intermunicipal cooperation or to a mixed union, by the president of the public establishment or the mixed union, after opinion delivered by the public person in charge of the transport and purification of wastewater as well as the treatment of sludge downstream, if this community is different.
To formulate an opinion, it has a period of two months, extended by one month if it requests additional information. In the absence of an opinion given within the time limit, it is deemed favorable.
The absence of a response to the authorization request more than four months after the date of receipt of this request constitutes rejection of the request.
What are we risking? a fine of 450 euros
Dumping wastewater on public roads is punishable by a 3rd category fine, i.e. 450 euros. This is the amount you will have to pay if a malicious neighbor called the police when he saw you tampering with your vehicles in front of your home.
But the case can, in theory, go further than a simple fine if it is proven that the spill caused obvious pollution.
Article L216-6 of the Environmental Code provides that proven environmental pollution can be punished with a fine of 75,000 euros and 2 years of imprisonment. The article relates to rivers, bodies of water, seas and other sources, so this means that you can potentially be punished by washing your vehicle in your garden, if for example a water table is located in underneath or if a stream passes at the bottom of the garden.
We are not going to hide it, the risks here are minimal, because providing proof remains complex.
Finally, if you meet the conditions which allow you to wash your vehicles at home, you must also check that your municipality is not affected by drought and that restrictions on the use of water have not been put in place. put in place by the prefect. In the event of non-compliance with water restrictions, the offender is then exposed to fines of 1,500 euros.
Article R216-9 of the Environmental Code :
Violation of the measures of limitation or temporary suspension of water uses prescribed by the decrees mentioned in articles R. 211-66 to R. 211-69 is punishable by the fine provided for 5th class contraventions. .
Alternative solutions for washing your motorcycle
So how can you wash your vehicles if you don't have a suitable setup? The first solution is quite simple and lies in dry cleaning.
As we have already explained, it is the runoff of dirty water that is the problem, not the fact that you are cleaning your machine. You can use cleaning wipes and leave-in products without any problem. And there are now plenty of brands.
Now, this is not always enough and it is hard to imagine cleaning your vehicles with a wipe.
There, you will have to go to a washing station to clean your mount with the high pressure systems provided for this purpose, or the rollers in the case of your car. Because the stations have obligations to filter wastewater and comply with environmental standards.
And there are finally waterless cleaning stations, often close to certain shopping centers and supermarkets.
Water consumption usually observed
The figures vary depending on the sources, but it is admitted that it is washing with water at home which consumes the most water and is frankly not ecological.
- 500 L of water for washing a car with a water jet at home (source: Planetoscope, which gives the figure of consumption of 35 million m3 of water in France each year for washing cars)
- 100 L to 350 L for roller cleaning
- 50 L to 60 L for high pressure washing
Wipes are then an interesting alternative, provided you throw them in the trash and especially not in the toilets or sewers, because they regularly block the pipes by accumulating and clumping. But they are not very ecological either and are expensive.
OCEANIA ENVIRONMENT offers different solutions for washing cars, construction or wine machinery, agricultural machinery, containers (cellars), motorcycles, bicycles, various equipment, etc. for professionals.
We select and custom design, if necessary, simple, innovative, economical and reliable solutions which can also recycle this water before discharge into the network.
Because your job is not the management of your effluent.
Because you must meet standards in the event of an inspection.
Discover our solutions or contact us to study your project