FocusCanada Forums

Anyone get fish painted on their street in front of on every storm drain? Well we were lucky enough to get them yesterday... by school kids in the neighbourhood that nearly got ran over by traffic on a few occasions.

Branching off from the other topic about not washing your car in the driveway, as all the water that goes through those drains is left untreated and enters out local streams, rivers and lakes.

http://www.yellowfishroad.org / http://www.tucanada.org





So, washing my car is considered dumping... and advertised as such even more now. Just great. Why not bug people that actually dump oil and crap into the sewers?!

Anyone else lucky enough to have these painted on their street? I see this program isn't as small as I thought.

Quote:What sorts of things are harmful to the fish?

Almost anything other than clean rainwater will be harmful to the fish. This includes soap used to wash cars (that is not biodegradable), excess fertilizer on the lawn, dirt and oil from roadways, and construction materials. Pollution not only affects fish, but plants, bugs and other wildlife using the water.

Well this makes sense... but nowhere do I see biodegradable on my Meguiars car wash. I'm gonna email Meguiars on this.

A great "gorilla campaign"

I know there are SEVERAL car soaps that are okay for the environment.

Here is an ad for the city of Toronto a few years ago.

ANTHONYD,May 11 2006, 10:08 AM Wrote:I know there are SEVERAL car soaps that are okay for the environment.
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And which ones would they be?

If they really waned to improve the situation, they would ban using salt on roads, you wouldn't need to wash your car so much.

I wonder where all the paint chips will go as those fish wash off the road?

What will become of the stickers and adhesive?

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And as for dog poo in the lake -- hmm, considering Toronto trucks its garbage to Michigan which is upstream of Toronto harbour, it's like peeing into the wind....

OAC_Sparky,May 11 2006, 10:18 AM Wrote:If they really waned to improve the situation, they would ban using salt on roads, you wouldn't need to wash your car so much.

I wonder where all the paint chips will go as those fish wash off the road?

What will become of the stickers and adhesive?

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And as for dog poo in the lake  --  hmm, considering Toronto trucks its garbage to Michigan which is upstream of Toronto harbour, it's like peeing into the wind....
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Exactly... those stickers move around easily, they look like they're held on with a tar like adhesive. Not permanent at all. One stupid kid that's curious can rip them all off if they want, and throw them all down the drains for that matter... wouldn't surprise me.

BIO-SOAP
GLIPTONE BIO-SOAP

ANTHONYD,May 11 2006, 11:08 AM Wrote:A great "gorilla campaign"

I know there are SEVERAL car soaps that are okay for the environment.

Here is an ad for the city of Toronto a few years ago.


[right][snapback]186774[/snapback][/right]

I've never seen that ad...

I remember the ones with the lawn being overwatered, and the worms and whatnot wearing life preservers...

darkpuppet,May 11 2006, 11:50 AM Wrote:

ANTHONYD,May 11 2006, 11:08 AM Wrote:A great "gorilla campaign"

I know there are SEVERAL car soaps that are okay for the environment.

Here is an ad for the city of Toronto a few years ago.


[right][snapback]186774[/snapback][/right]

I've never seen that ad...

I remember the ones with the lawn being overwatered, and the worms and whatnot wearing life preservers...
[right][snapback]186810[/snapback][/right]

Yeah those were great.

I think this one is launching this year.

Infact, I think there is one on the garbage can on Yonge and Bloor.

Dog poop ends up in the lake...... And so it has for thousands if not millions of years. Where does fish poop go? I think it all ends up in the same place. But going as far as saying dirt from roadways is harmfull to fish, that is extreme. I wouldn't eat anything from Lake Ontario anyways and that is because we are last in line from all the great lakes and the worst pollution come from south of the border.

But the yellow fish is cute, what is it saying? Go fishing at night and this is what you will get. :lol:

ANTHONYD,May 11 2006, 10:25 AM Wrote:BIO-SOAP
GLIPTONE BIO-SOAP
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Damn... any known brands? :lol: They both look a little shabby... you don't use a bio friendly car wash, do you?

FAWK NO.:lol:

Focus man, Focus.,May 11 2006, 12:37 PM Wrote:Dog poop ends up in the lake......  And so it has for thousands if not millions of years.  Where does fish poop go?  I think it all ends up in the same place.  But going as far as saying dirt from roadways is harmfull to fish, that is extreme.  I wouldn't eat anything from Lake Ontario anyways and that is because we are last in line from all the great lakes and the worst pollution come from south of the border. 

But the yellow fish is cute, what is it saying?  Go fishing at night and this is what you will get.  :lol:
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Fish poop really isn't a valid argumement. Animal feces is. Things like TB, Hepititus etc stem from Mammal crap.

The campaign is saying, clean up your dog crap. Eventually it washes into the ground and makes it way into the lake.

As for Lake Ontario being polluted...It's been that way for a century....But there's nothing wrong with doing your part to help make sure it doesn't get any worse. :)

Thank You Captain Planet! :lol:


That ad is pretty cool, I'm surprised they used the word Poo though.

haha Poo! :lol:

The word POO works on several levels. It get the kids talking (make sure daddy cleans up Fido's buisiness) plus it;s a kinder work for crap that everyone understands.

Don't you feel sorry for the catfish? :lol:

Where's Nos on this...I'm sure he a has a good view on this.

well its got us talking about poo.

the ad works!

Hah, I'm being paged! ;) :lol:

It's about being smart about it, but as other threads are saying... car washers are far from the big offenders that they actually ought to be targetting.

What about coin-op car wash bays? Do their drains end up in the treated "sanitary" lines, as my Works-employed brother-in-law calls the sewer system? I'd hope so.

What if you were to tie a drain in a new home driveway into the sanitary line? Won't fly. Too much load from many driveways via rainwater, etc.

Indoor drains, aka drain-in-garage? Same deal, little less load. besides, who wants to plastic their garage interior so they can wash the car and have the grey water end up in the treated lines? Besides mud wrestler strippers with the day off, of course. ;) I'm sure they could start their own chain of "enviro-friendly" car-washing* establishments.

So what's a guy to do? More biodegradable soap is a good start. What about basic scrubbers on storm drains? Changeable large cartridges on mains?

Or, as noted, ban salt from the roadways. More silt via sand/composite being dropped ought to be less harmful to the environment than salt, but there's the chance that increased sand being used will clog the drains as sludge/sediment, akin to putting coffee grounds down the sink.

There's no easy solution, but non-biodegradable fish warning us about soap isn't the best start. Neither is inadvertently asking us all to drive dirty cars.










* replace "washing" with "rubbing themselves along your vehicle while soaking wet" :lol:

Here's the kicker fellas.

The government tosses millions of tons of salt on the streets every winter....Every spring my grass dies due to it. What do I do??? I mix up a chrynobyl like substance of chemicals and spread liberally on my lawn.

Thus being drained back into the environment. Again, a no win situation. We're all guilty.


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I believe Coin-Op wash bays are required to have a water filtration and recycle system in place in order to run.

Pretty sure they're are some strict laws to those suckers. There would HAVE to be.

yup.. we're all guilty, and dog poo? c'mon.. that can't be the majority of the problem, can it?

this is one of those, "when good intentions go bad" situations.

this is the one i have and use.


Formula is concentrated, biodegradable and phosphate-free
Foam rinses clean and streak-free
Safe for all finishes
Exclusive to Canadian Tire


Plus in Vaughan the water does not run to the lake anymore, they create these man made small run offs that contain the rain water in it. All new development areas have then now days.

i'm not putting simple green on my car......

we use that on our jets for christs sakes......enough of it and you'll strip the paint off of it...