This was a long tail phrase someone put to the Bing search engine on 2/6/14 at 12:46 p.m. that was directed to our site.
And it was a very good question, and one we get a lot, so I thought I would do a blog post to answer it.
The answer unfortunately is not just a Yes or No one. The fact is NO soap is approved for storm water run off including Brown Derby. That said there are many was to make cleaning with Brown Derby or almost any cleaner EPA approved for sewer drain discharge to be handled by a waste water facility.
First it does not matter how "Green" or completely safe a cleaner is, once it has been used to wash a surface, all the dirt, debris, oils and contaminants that are released from that surface are now in the waste water and must be addressed to meet EPA standards or the standards of that particular municipality which can be stricter than the EPA's.
I can say that Brown Derby, as well as almost all of our cleaners, is phosphate free, is classified under the US CLEAN WATER ACT as a non toxic pollutant, is a non hazardous substance (section 302) once diluted and used as directed, is also not classified under the CLEAR AIR ACT as a hazardous air pollutant, and is biodegradable.
That said, this does not mean you can just wash with it and flush the waste water into the sewer. You need to know what your local regulations are. You may be fine to wash straight on to the ground, if on grass or gravel and if the run off can not immediately be washed into a watershed or waterway. But you might be required reclaim all the waste water, to filter your water through an oil filter, through a sediment filter to meet a micron per gallon limit, or to meet a certain pH range, these are just some of the many other requirements that may need to meet, for federal, state and local regulations prior to discharge.
I hope the person that did this search and any others that come here later following the lead of this long tail will contact us 1-800-762-7911, so that we can evaluate the needs of each contractor and customer situation to find them the best cleaning solution to their particular job.