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Is this what made Charlotte react? Pressure Washing Accident

Ken Fenner

Active member
Betsy Anderson and her husband, Mel Battle, were walking on the Little Sugar Creek Greenway on Saturday morning when they noticed that nothing in the creek was moving.

"There were just dead fish all over the place," Anderson said.

Hundreds of them died, from Carolinas Medical Center toward Freedom Park, after chemicals that were being used in pressure-washing leaked into the creek, according to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Stormwater Management officials. Charlotte-Mecklenburg police and the Charlotte Fire Department were alerted early Saturday; a hazardous-materials team tested the water and determined there was "no immediate threat to the public, to workers or to nearby businesses", said Rob Brisley, spokesman for the Charlotte Fire Department.

The fish weren't so fortunate. CMC had hired ValleyCrest Landscape Maintenance to pressure-wash new concrete on its property.

"ValleyCrest violated city and state laws by using an acidic chemical compound as part of its pressure-washing", said Rusty Rozzelle, water quality program manager with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Stormwater Management.

The acidic chemical lowered the pH levels in the water to 6 (7 to 9 is normal for the creek), killing the fish.

"ValleyCrest agreed to remove the dead fish and could face up to a $10,000 fine", Rozzelle said. ValleyCrest officials could not be reached for comment Saturday evening.

"CMC cooperated with authorities to determine the cause", said Debra Pierce, vice president of marketing for CMC.

Commercial pressure-washing is not a violation of drought-related city or county water restrictions, Rozzelle said. But the drought is an aspect of the incident: Low water levels in the creek added to the problem, Rozzelle said. The water flow was not sufficient to dilute the washing chemicals.The pressure-washing lasted 11 hours, dumping the chemical from a stormwater drain near a CMC parking deck that faces the creek. Around noon Saturday, upstream from the drain, the water was clear and fish were alive; downstream, the water was clouded and the fish were dead.)

http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/woalert_read.php?cid=13201&cat=dis&lang=eng

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If this is a repost.. sorry about that. I've never seen it. Is this the incident that caused Charlotte to try and implement the tough initial restrictions?
 

plainpainter

New member
Send 'em a letter Carlos - saying that UAMCC contractors would have never allowed such a problem to have occurred in the first place - and that there is professionalism in the pressure washing trades, landscapers aren't washers!
 
Send 'em a letter Carlos - saying that UAMCC contractors would have never allowed such a problem to have occurred in the first place - and that there is professionalism in the pressure washing trades, landscapers aren't washers!


Dan this incident happened in 2007 the Uamcc wasn't in it's current form at that time.Therefore no need to try and discredit anyone who isn't a member.
You're talking out of your rearend by saying only a Uamcc contractor could have prevented such an incident.
Any educated pressure washing contract could have had a chance at preventing this type of thing,but keep in mind try as we will things can and do go wrong.To bad a pressure washing contractor wasn't hired to do the job so none of us got a chance to do it as right as we could.
The mentality you have about non Org members is reminiscent of the old PWNA crowd.It was garbage then and it's garbage now!We are in the same industry member or not we all have similar goals for how we want to see thing in the industry.To bad you are letting your dues cloud your thinking.
 

Ken Fenner

Active member
Before this turns into some ugly back and forth.. Scott, I think Dan was being facetious. I am fairly certain that is not his belief system but he was saying to use it more of a marketing angle. You're letting yourself get caught up in tripe that doesn't exist. This is not the PWNA.
 
Before this turns into some ugly back and forth.. Scott, I think Dan was being facetious. I am fairly certain that is not his belief system but he was saying to use it more of a marketing angle. You're letting yourself get caught up in tripe that doesn't exist. This is not the PWNA.

Ken I'm far from caught up in any tripe and I'm not trying to start a battle. I call things like I see them and Dan's comment warranted a reply based on at least 2 facts....there was no Uamcc in 07 and this isn't the 1st time I've seen Dan make similar comments about being more qualified since he joined the Org. IMO,this mentality by a few degrades the strides that the Uamcc is making.
 
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Ken Fenner

Active member
Scott, you and I have known each other for a long time. We both have seen a hundred guys that know how to do little more than stir up controversy. Some of those guys are going to join the UAMCC. I like Dan and consider him a friend even though I shake my head at some of the stuff he puts up in print. The UAMCC cannot control personalities. The org certainly won't control mine. Like you I don't always flow with party lines and I will generally speak my mind though I try to stay professional for the most part. I guess my point is I don't like being labeled or judged just because of an org or any other affiliation because that is unfair.
 

Carlos Gonzales

New member
Dan this incident happened in 2007 the Uamcc wasn't in it's current form at that time.Therefore no need to try and discredit anyone who isn't a member.
You're talking out of your rearend by saying only a Uamcc contractor could have prevented such an incident.
Any educated pressure washing contract could have had a chance at preventing this type of thing,but keep in mind try as we will things can and do go wrong.To bad a pressure washing contractor wasn't hired to do the job so none of us got a chance to do it as right as we could.
The mentality you have about non Org members is reminiscent of the old PWNA crowd.It was garbage then and it's garbage now!We are in the same industry member or not we all have similar goals for how we want to see thing in the industry.To bad you are letting your dues cloud your thinking.

To think that a UAMCC contractor member could have prevented this is just not the right thinking actually it is pretty silly. As Scott said...any legitimate contractor on this job would have done the right thing. Member or no-member.

Scott is correct when he says that we are in the same industry and any contractor member that joins should join based on the conviction that they want to improve their business and that their are some useful tools in the UAMCC tool box to do just that.

All I can say is that we (contractors) live in a very interesting industry today!

Good post Scott!
 

plainpainter

New member
Well, we all joined the UAMCC in an attempt to have an organization improve the image of this industry, correct? And what's wrong with the UAMCC going out there and selling it's contractors as professional. Scott - I said UAMCC contractors would have never allowed this to happen - which I think is true. I did not say that a non-UAMCC member couldn't - that's illogical on your part to assume that. But this is the UAMCC, and we as paying members want an organization to promote us as members - what's so strange about that?
 

DJ Carroll

New member
nope. I have money in the bank - but I definitely can't spend any of it. I don't think there will be any interior painting going on this winter - so I have 4-1/2 months of downtime to budget for.

Make more money! Its a tax write off and I look at it as investment into my company just as a new mower or office equipment is. I think there will be much gained in Orlando this fall.
 

plainpainter

New member
Make more money! Its a tax write off and I look at it as investment into my company just as a new mower or office equipment is. I think there will be much gained in Orlando this fall.

Business is way off this summer - which is strange, because I had overdrafts last summer on my account, where as I have money in the bank this summer.
But that's because I axed off loads of advertizing. D.J. - my best performing 'traditional' type of advertizing got me 18k+ in sales last year - that same ad has done only $350 so far this year. Right now I am in marketing mode and working with a friend to introduce new services for repair and restoration of boat canvas covers this fall. I can't take a 'pleasure' trip yet - I need to find ways to make more money. And I only have 2 months left to make the money.
 

Carlos Gonzales

New member
Holy Smokes!!!! You are like only a 30 mile shot from Stinson beach!!!!!

I love that beach! I love the hills right on that beach and the Redwood forest right there in the valleys of those hills.

Yep...we have it all here...beaches, mountains, vineyards and Lattes. They closed down Stinson last week...there was a great white shark sighting. Estimates put the fish between 10-12 feet.
 
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