Water Reclamation

Water reclamation in commercial cleaning means capturing the dirty runoff from a pressure-washing job at the work site, rather than letting it flow across pavement and into a storm drain. The captured water either gets pumped into the truck’s onboard recovery tank for disposal at a sanitary sewer connection, or filtered and reused on-site if the contamination level allows.

Why it matters: in California, and in most municipal jurisdictions across the country, the storm drain system is regulated as a Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) under the federal Clean Water Act’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) program. Any non-stormwater discharge to that system — including the soapy, grease-laden, hydrocarbon-contaminated runoff from a pressure-washing job — is a regulated discharge. In San Diego County, the regional MS4 permit is enforced by the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board, and the fines for unauthorized discharge can be substantial.

The mechanical setup for reclamation on a typical job is:

1. Containment. Berms, weighted booms, or inflatable dams ring the work area to keep runoff from spreading. Drain inserts seal nearby storm drain openings.
2. Collection. Wet/dry vacuum or surface cleaner with onboard vacuum continuously recovers water as it’s being deposited.
3. Transport. Recovered water goes into a recovery tank on the truck. Volume capacity is the limiting factor — most commercial trucks carry 100-500 gallons of recovery capacity.
4. Disposal. Sanitary sewer discharge at an approved location. In San Diego, that’s typically a contractor’s shop with a metered sewer connection, not the job site.

CCSD’s pressure washing setup includes reclamation as the default for any job in a stormwater-sensitive area — which is most commercial parking lots, retail centers, and dumpster pads. The exceptions are sites with a self-contained sewer drain in the wash area (some food plants and truck washes), where the runoff flows directly into the sanitary system on-site.