That is a good point about having a company come and pick up the wash water.
I looked into this for a special project here where I live to show how ridiculous the cost would be to do things the way that some vendor up in north Texas told them they had to do things and to show them how it can be done legally without all that nonsense and had them call the right people to verify I was telling them the truth.
To haul away wash water would require a vacuum truck at $80.00 per hour plus an additional man in the truck (their policy of 2 guys in the truck for safety reasons) at the rate of an additional $30.00 per hour.
They are timing the job from the time they leave their yard to the time they return with a 4 hour minimum.
There is also the cost to dispose of the wash water at the rate of $0.50 per gallon, no minimum or maximum.
Then there is the truck wash out cost to clean the tank at the rate of $225.00 to be steam cleaned and sanitized and neutralized by their shop so there is no chance of cross-contamination and no possible reaction with anything else they haul later that day or week.
This is the average price of several companies that deal with waste water hauling/environmental cleanups so one is higher and one is lower than the other 2 companies.
When you do the math of a full day of cleaning concrete at 5.5gpm's for 8 hours (8 hour day but 30 minutes setup and 30 minutes teardown off the clock) minus 1 hour lunch and a couple of 15 minute breaks so 1.5 hours not washing. Let's do the math 6.5 hours washing at 5.5gpm (5.5 x 60 min x 6.5 hours) is 2535 gallons which will fit in the average vacuum truck plus you will have water absorbing into the concrete and a lot evaporating also before it reaches the lowest point of the property.
I usually work a lot more hours per day but this is just an example to show the math and ridiculousness from the info from a vendor up in north Texas.
They did not tell me who the company was and I did not ask but it was obvious that that vendor was lying to them and giving them a lot of mis-information that I proved to this company and showed them the truth and had them call some people to verify the truth and they got pissed at that vendor for lying to them and almost causing them a fortune to get a simple large job done.
So, we would have a vacuum truck on site for 8 hours but add in the 20 minute drive there and back but they deduct 30 minute lunch if they leave for lunch, if they stay there then lunch is on the clock as they will alternate between the 2 guys so one is watching the job at all times for safety reasons and company policy. So, 8 hours and 40 minutes they round up to the nearest half hour or hour) at $80 per hour and the additional guy at $30 per hour will be $110.00 per hour x 9 hours will be $990.00
Now add in the truck wash fee of $225.00
Now add in the cost of disposing the wash water at $0.50 per gallon x 2535 but let's say that a few hundred gallons absorbs and evaporates just for argument's sake, so $0.50 x 2235 gallons will be $1267.50 for disposal of the wash water.
Oops, I forgot to add in the time to drive to the disposal place which is about 30 minutes each way so that is another hour of $110.00 added to the bill, and that is no waiting hopefully, if they have to wait to dispose of the wash water, that is being charged to you, the customer.
Ok, let's look at the bill for handling and disposing of the wash water per day as this is a large concrete slab that needs to be washed but will take several days.
$ 990.00 for the vacuum truck and helper per day
$ 225.00 for the washout of the vacuum truck each day
$1267.50 for the disposal of the wash water each day
$ 110.00 for the additional time to go to and from the disposal facility each day
Total is: $2592.50 but that is not including the actual washing of the concrete, this is just to take away the wash water as recommended by the north Texas vendor, who does not even work here, has no clue of the job, has no clue of what is needed to do the job, that vendor is just regurgitating info that some idiot said or is just making up lies and other mis-information because he has no idea of the job or what it entails.
For a customer to pay this amount of money per day besides the cost to wash the concrete is going to be out of reach for a lot of customers and I would not ask them to pay that kind of money ever, that is why I talked to them about another method of dealing with the wash water that is legal and they called to check on my information and found me to be telling them the truth and actually impressed that I knew so much about this kind of thing as the other contractors did not mention any of this and when asked about the wash water they told them that they would have to look into it.
I know these numbers as I have done some of these projects on occasion and know the numbers from past experience, prices hardly ever go down, they usually go up as it is with the economy, prices usually only go up for most things.
I was able to do the concrete washing job with common sense and just brought some oil socks for added benefit but this job had no oil stains, just mold, mildew, algae and dirt so I had a vacuum and sump pump sending the non-oily wash water into the grassy area and the dirt we just shoveled into the grass with the permission of the owner so there was no big song and dance needed with this job, no hauling away wash water or other nonsense as was told to them by a north Texas vendor who did not have any clue whatsoever.
This is a perfect example of knowing the CWA (actually have read it and understand it, not just saying I did and acting like an expert afterwards), knowing what you can and cannot do and was able to do the job affordably for the customer and in their budget.
You don't need a huge investment to do the right thing most of the time in this industry but there are people out there that will lie to you and give you mis-information but it is up to you to know the truth and you will find a lot of truth here on UAMCC and over on PWI.
Thanks for what you are doing to help contractors here Tony. I hope some open their eyes and see how much you are doing for everyone and I hope that people will read the CWA so they will understand what it is about so they will not be lied to or misled as there is still a lot of that going around out there.