Date:         Tue, 24 Jan 1995 11:00:02 -0500
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         michael.heron@utoronto.ca (Michael Heron)
Subject:      Re: Coolant disposal RANT!

all right here it goes....

why oh why would anybody pour coolant down the drain (even if you "dilute" it?)?

 A very basic tenet of ecology or environmentalism (please read this
message before writing me off as a holier than thou' granola head!) is that
everything is interconnected. Ultimately, the coolant you dump into the
sewer will end up in some form in your drinking water, or something else.
Coolant doesn't magically disappear into the abyss once you put in into the
sewer!!!! BTW, certain forms of wildlife (mamals and birds) are very fond
of drinking spilt coolant (due to its' "sweet" taste), this leads to
imminent death!!

I would say clean up all spilt used coolant w/ rags. The large amounts
collect in a container, and when you've got the bottle full enough to
warrant a trip, take your coolant and other chemical nasties to the local
"toxic waste disposal", usually run by a municipality. They spend a lot of
time trying to convince people not to dispose of chemical wastes down the
toilet! I'm sure they'd like to hear from you. You wouldn't pour used motor
oil down the sewer (I hope!) why on earth would you pour coolant?

The solution to pollution is not "dilution". The dilution mentality is best
exemplified by your local industries "super tall" somestack. If they build
the stack tall enough the "flyash" or whatever other particulates they are
producing disperse over a large enough area so that the company will be in
compliance w/ gov't reg's. It is not that they are polluting less, they are
just dispersing it over a larger area!

That is my 2 cents worth and i will get off the soapbox now!

michael


>>Around here (Southern Calif) it is "really really bad"(tm) to pour anything
>>like anti-freeze down the drain, or on the ground.  Even the junkyards
>>have been forced by the state to provide pans to drain the stuff into in
>>the yards to protect the environment.  I always recycle it if it is
>>anything more than what gets spilled on the floor in the garage.
>>
>>-David
>
>And I have had the same response from the folks that run the City of Atlanta
>Water (and Sewer) department.  Also, rather extensive and humorous
>discussions on NPR's "Car Talk" would indicate that disposing of Ethylene or
>Propylene Glycol-based coolant is permissable in sewer systems.
>
>I'm not sure that I would dispose of it in septic systems because of ground
>water contamination.
>
>What I have done is drain my coolant in front of the storm drain in front of
>my house, diluted with lots of water from the garden hose, especially since
>capturing all the coolant from a Vanagon (or any VW for that matter) is
>difficult because of the conspicuous lack of petcocks in VW products.  Since
>the City of Atlanta runs a CSO System (meaning the storm water combines with
>raw sewage creating an overflow situation when it rains and dumping the
>combined amount DIRECTLY into the Chattahoochee River) I would not do this
>after a rain.
>
>___________________________________________________________
>Donald Baxter
>dbax@mindspring.com       Atlanta, Georgia
>
>404.874.3292 (home)
>404.447.6831 (office)
>404.449.7268 (work)