Wal-Mart Wastewater Policy For Pressure Washing

St. Louis Pro Wash

St. Louis Pro Wash

New member
Just picked up several Wal-Marts for weekly and monthly surface cleaning. They require reclaim. I'm having a hard time finding out what Wal-Mart is going to require me to do with the captured waste water. Will I be able to filter and dump it on-site into a landscaped area? If I have permission from my POTW, can I just discharge down the sanitary sewer on-site? I will be doing sidewalks only.

For those of you that do Wal-Marts and reclaim, what is their policy on discharging waste water?

I've searched countless threads and web pages about this question but I can't find a solid answer. Thanks for any help.
 
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Congrats on the contracts, not sure of the answer to your specific situation.

In my area you would call the local sanitation district of each location and obtained the necessary permits.
 
I thought WalMart had a 25 page document with all types of requirements. I heard they had requirements that exceeded local govt. On site dry wells etc. I may be wrong. Seems like your WalMart contact person should have provided the requirements prior to pricing.

Good job on getting the work.
 
We currently service walmarts out here and they required us to sign a scope of work that was only 2 pages. It states all waste water must be stored, transported, manifested and disposed of according to local state and federal regulations. At no time may a contractor allow the discharge of wastewater to flow from the cleaning surface to a storm drain or catch basin, street, roadway, sidewalk, gutter, landscape area or any type of storm water structure.

I would first try to see if you guys have a place where you can haul the water to have it disposed of legally. If you strike out there then I would suggest talking with the local treatment plant about discharging your wastewater through a city sewer (man hole sized) and not a landscape or a sewer clean out that belongs to Walmart. I would highly reccomend that you let Walmart know whats going on. You would hate to get caught with your pants down. Bottom line is that they want to be insured that they are not going to get fined by the EPA or any other agency. Be sure not to use any soaps or degreasers.

Be sure to not use any soap and try and have the water filtered before disposal.
 
Every single pressure washing company that intends to do business with Walmart must sign it or they will deny your vendor#.
 
I think you got to figure a better way to take care of the water. I cant imagine having to haul away my waste water..... It would be to much wait, too much water, too much of a hassle and too dangerous, in my opinion.
 
I heard a pressure washing supplier mention; a company that provided coil cleaning/filter service to many Sam's/Walmart on the east coast, had to upgrade and have reclaim.

The company went out and bought the reclaim equipment to service the existing contract, when the contract came up for renewal they were under bid. They were doing it for 10 years prior to the new reclaim rules Walmart now have in place.

I remember in 2004 or 2005 when "Clean up America" Bill said that Walmart was going to insist that all power wash contractors had reclaim capabilities. That time has come.
 
I don't mind the reclaim part however the hauling it offsite is a big problem. I dont carry a cdl nor do I carry a hazmat certification
 
810f250 said:
I heard a pressure washing supplier mention; a company that provided coil cleaning/filter service to many Sam's/Walmart on the east coast, had to upgrade and have reclaim.

The company went out and bought the reclaim equipment to service the existing contract, when the contract came up for renewal they were under bid. They were doing it for 10 years prior to the new reclaim rules Walmart now have in place.

I remember in 2004 or 2005 when "Clean up America" Bill said that Walmart was going to insist that all power wash contractors had reclaim capabilities. That time has come.
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I don't see how reclaim on coil cleaning should be a problem. My question would be why did they have to purchase any special equipment for that?

You can clean all their units with less than 1000 gallons of water. (more like 600)

Walmart doesn't use cleanable filters in any of their units as far as I know so that leaves only coil cleaning.

The distance between the units is so large, I would guess about half the water would evaporate before reaching the edge of the building.

Rooftop reclaim is easy, it all usually comes out one or two places and if you aren't using soap it can all go down the sewer. There's no oil or chemicals on a rooftop. In most states you can still send it down the sewer even if you use coil cleaner (which is SodHyd)
 
Thats what the supplier told me Tony, I did not investigate any further, I meet Kevin (supplier/serviceman) at a local Maryland meeting of a PWI/ Grime Scene member (Henry Brockman) just before Vegas RT.

Kevin sold the company the equipment, which was the Sirocco electric vacuum systems. I think they bought 3 of them. I believe the contract stipulated they had to catch all water from all pressure washing , either on the roof or after it ran off just before the storm drain (chems or not).

This was his anchor contract, and he had 5 trucks and lots of equipment, owner just closed up shop Kevin said after he lost the contract (major states of the east coast).

Walmart just protecting themselves I guess. I am not sure that they were allowed to treat on site, and direct to sanitary sewer.

I think he did mention the filters too. But dont quote me on that.
 
810f250 said:
Thats what the supplier told me Tony, I did not investigate any further, I meet Kevin (supplier/serviceman) at a local Maryland meeting of a PWI/ Grime Scene member (Henry Brockman) just before Vegas RT.

Kevin sold the company the equipment, which was the Sirocco electric vacuum systems. I think they bought 3 of them. I believe the contract stipulated they had to catch all water from all pressure washing , either on the roof or after it ran off just before the storm drain (chems or not).

This was his anchor contract, and he had 5 trucks and lots of equipment, owner just closed up shop Kevin said after he lost the contract (major states of the east coast).

Walmart just protecting themselves I guess. I am not sure that they were allowed to treat on site, and direct to sanitary sewer.

I think he did mention the filters too. But dont quote me on that.
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Wow. That's crazy. Pandering to this madness is the reason it goes on. It's a shame that the psycho tree huggers have taken Walmart (an otherwise good company) by the n*ts and lead them around like this.

This is a good example of why you don't rely on on customer, especially one with no loyalty.
 
They caught alot of flack over a documentary about them a couple of years ago. Global warming and all that Obama stuff.
 
Walmart was fined Millions for waste water runoff. I think if you search Google hard enough you will find that Walmart was fined 2 or 4 million dollars the last time they got caught with there pants down. Be careful cleaning the Walmarts because they are the Giant in there field and others are looking at them thru a telescope knowing darn well they can get alot of Money from Walmart if Walmart is doing something wrong. Just look at the fines they got for using illegal aliens to clean for them.
 
Sounds like a good business would be hauling the dirty water to the treatment facility. Here the price was around $0.50 per pound to take the dirty water to be disposed of and you would get a manifest to show proof that you disposed of it properly.

Figure $0.50 x 8.33 pounds per gallon so that comes out to $4.16 per gallon to dispose of (prices back in 2004).

When I talked to the Manager of Sam's club less than 2 weeks ago their policy is for you to take the water off-site and dispose of it properly.

I mentioned about the dry wells and that the city will accept the dirty water if you separate the oil and sediment first and it would be ok to send down the sanitary sewer but Sam's club Manager said that it has to be removed and that he would not do anything that is against the written policy.

It would be nice if they would change the policy so that others could do some of the work and have some of the locations.

I have a class "B" CDL but I am not going to get a Waste Hauler's permit to do jobs for them.

I am not going to get a D.O.T. (Department Of Transportation) approved truck or trailer for hauling waste water.

I am not going to get more file cabinets to store manifests for years (you need to save manifests or bill of ladings for a number of years when you haul chemicals or waste water).

Way too many hoops to jump through to do work for Wal Mart by their policy, if they change their policy I would not mind working for them.
 
Christopher said:
Sounds like a good business would be hauling the dirty water to the treatment facility. Here the price was around $0.50 per pound to take the dirty water to be disposed of and you would get a manifest to show proof that you disposed of it properly.

Figure $0.50 x 8.33 pounds per gallon so that comes out to $4.16 per gallon to dispose of (prices back in 2004).

When I talked to the Manager of Sam's club less than 2 weeks ago their policy is for you to take the water off-site and dispose of it properly.

I mentioned about the dry wells and that the city will accept the dirty water if you separate the oil and sediment first and it would be ok to send down the sanitary sewer but Sam's club Manager said that it has to be removed and that he would not do anything that is against the written policy.

It would be nice if they would change the policy so that others could do some of the work and have some of the locations.

I have a class "B" CDL but I am not going to get a Waste Hauler's permit to do jobs for them.

I am not going to get a D.O.T. (Department Of Transportation) approved truck or trailer for hauling waste water.

I am not going to get more file cabinets to store manifests for years (you need to save manifests or bill of ladings for a number of years when you haul chemicals or waste water).

Way too many hoops to jump through to do work for Wal Mart by their policy, if they change their policy I would not mind working for them.
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I think by "YOU" having to have to remove the waste water off the property it probably mean The company must remove the water in any and all means..

Like a vacuum truck..

I don't see how it would matter which way the waste was removed off site, as long as its removed, preventing them from further non compliance.

John
 
Clean County PW said:
Walmart was fined Millions for waste water runoff. I think if you search Google hard enough you will find that Walmart was fined 2 or 4 million dollars the last time they got caught with there pants down. Be careful cleaning the Walmarts because they are the Giant in there field and others are looking at them thru a telescope knowing darn well they can get alot of Money from Walmart if Walmart is doing something wrong. Just look at the fines they got for using illegal aliens to clean for them.
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Do you do any Walmarts John, with your swabby?
 
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