What Los Angeles actually says about washing your driveway.

Rule one: the hose is the problem

Phase I of the city's water conservation ordinance applies to every customer, all the time — it is not a drought-only measure.

“No Customer of the Department shall use a water hose to wash any paved surfaces, including, but not limited to, sidewalks, walkways, driveways and parking areas, except to alleviate immediate safety or sanitation hazards. This section shall not apply to Department-approved water-conserving spray cleaning devices. Use of water-pressure devices for graffiti removal is exempt. A simple spray nozzle does not qualify as a water-conserving spray cleaning device.” LAMC § 121.08 A.1 — read it on the code library

Three things follow from that paragraph, and they surprise people:

• The default is no. Hosing a driveway, walkway or parking area is prohibited outright, not merely discouraged.
• The exception is equipment, not intent. The rule does not bend because you are being careful. It bends for a water-conserving spray cleaning device — and the code goes out of its way to say a spray nozzle is not one.
• Graffiti is carved out separately. Water-pressure devices for graffiti removal are exempt.

So the uncomfortable summary: the person most likely to be breaking this rule on a given Saturday is a homeowner with a hose, not a contractor with a machine.

Rule two: where the dirty water ends up

This is the one that gets businesses cited, and it is the reason to ask any washer how they handle runoff.

“No person shall discharge, cause or permit the discharge of untreated wastewater from steam cleaning, mobile carpet cleaning, or from other such mobile commercial or industrial operations into the storm drain system.” LAMC § 64.70.03 — read it on the code library

Pressure washing is squarely inside “other such mobile commercial… operations”. And the storm drain is not a sewer: in Los Angeles it discharges to the river and the ocean essentially untreated, which is why the city treats this as a pollution offence rather than a paperwork one. Under § 64.70.02 D, violating the article is a misdemeanour unless the code specifically makes that provision an infraction.

What we do about it

• Water-conserving equipment. Pressure does the cleaning, so the flow rate is lower than a hose — typically in the region of 4–8 gallons per minute against a wide-open hose's 8–17.
• Drains blocked and runoff captured on any job where water would otherwise reach a gutter or grate. Recovered water is disposed of properly, not tipped round the side.
• Pre-treatment first. Most staining is chemical, not mechanical. Lifting it with a solution rather than blasting it uses less water and does less damage.
• We will say no. If what you want is a hose-down of a surface that does not need it, that is a job we will talk you out of rather than take.

Where to check any of this

• LAMC § 121.08 — water conservation phases, including the hard-surface rule
• LAMC § 64.70.03 — illicit discharges to the storm drain
• LADWP — Water Conservation & Ordinance
• LA Sanitation — the bureau that runs the city's watershed protection programme

Quoted from the Los Angeles Municipal Code as published by the American Legal code library, checked 4 September 2026. Codes change; the links go to the live text so you are never relying on our copy of it. This is general information about the code, not legal advice.