Storm Water Quality
Power Washers
The purpose of the City of Fort Worth's permit program for mobile commercial cosmetic cleaners ("power washers") is to limit detergents and other pollutants from being discharged into the city's storm drain system. Anything that is discharged into the street eventually ends up in a local creek, lake or river. These discharges do not go through a purification treatment process like sewage. Because of the widespread pollution detected in storm drains around the country, since the early 90s the EPA has required all cities over 100,000 in population to create pollution control programs and clean up their storm drains. Smaller cities are now similarly challenged.