Clean Cars or Clean Lakes? The Choice is Yours

While you're trying to drive less, think about how you wash your car.  If you wash it on the driveway, all the gunk from the car and whatever soap you might use runs down the driveway and straight into the storm drains which go straight to the rivers which run into the lakes and eventually the oceans.  Commercial car washes are actually very environmentally friendly in this respect.  But if you really want to wash the car in the comforts of your own home, consider driving onto the lawn or garden.  It'll give the yard some much needed watering, and plants, dirt, and rocks are handy for filtering toxins out of water before it hits groundwater levels. 

AND keep in mind that biodegradable soap (anything for that matter) only biodegrades on land, not in the water.  Keep soap 200 m away from a body of water when you're camping, and don't let it get into the storm drains!   If you wouldn't want to drink it, keep it out of the water.  And if you wouldn't dump it in a pristine lake, don't dump it down the storm drains or leave it on the ground to make its way there - ahemcigarettebuttsahem.  It's not just about the environment, it's basic common courtesy not to trash what isn't yours. 

Just sayin'.  That's it.