Angelenos Urged To 'Go Dirty For The Drought', Give Up Car Washes For 60 Days
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — How dirty are you willing to let your car get to save water during the historic statewide drought?
A campaign from the nonprofit Los Angeles Waterkeeper is calling on Southland residents to forgo washing their vehicle for 60 days to help conserve water and raise awareness about the drought.
As part of the campaign, a Dirty Car Pledge sticker is distributed to participants to place on the inside of their rear car window. Participants are asked to take a photo of the sticker on their vehicle and post the photo to social media using with the hashtag #DirtyCarPledge.
Liz Crosson, executive director of Los Angeles Waterkeeper, told KNX 1070's Jim Thornton and Diane Thompson the effort could save as much as 3 million gallons of water - even if it keeps thousands of would-be customers away from local car washes.
LA Waterkeeper Liz Crosson
"There are some car washes that do recycle quite a bit of water and there's a certification program that people should look for and make sure that if they are gonna go to the car wash, they should do their part and use those car washes that are using good practices," said Crosson.
According to Crosson, people use an average of 85 gallons of water when washing their vehicle at home, compared to about 56 gallons used at car washes.
On average, Angelenos use as much as 129 gallons of water per day despite a state of emergency declared by Gov. Jerry Brown in January.
Click here to take the Dirty Car pledge and spread the word to conserve.
