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  COLORADO oPERATOR gETS
HIGH WATER MARKS
Colorado Operator
Gets High Water Marks
Colorado Operator Gets High
Water Marks
According to an article in
the Boulder, CO Daily Camera, Steve Miller wants to change the image
of business people in Boulder, that profit rules and everything
else is secondary.
For Miller, the bottom line
is this: He lives here, too.
For nearly 30 years, Miller's
family has operated a car wash in Boulder, first on 28th Street
on land now part of Crossroads Mall, and for the last 20 years at
3100 28th St., where it's known as Puddle Car Wash.
Last spring, a year after
Colorado's worst drought in a century, the company installed a water
reclamation system that reduced fresh water use to 19.5 gallons
per car, compared to the industry average of 35 gallons. And since
then, Puddle has managed to bring it down to 16 gallons.
Miller, who on Feb. 6 will
be honored by the Boulder Chamber of Commerce as Business Person
of the Year, says it was simply the right thing to do.
"I've been in the water business
for 20 years and I've always lived in the West," says Miller, 49.
"I flush my toilet every other time at home and I've been doing
that since I was a kid."
Miller, who was raised in
California, moved to Boulder in 1982 to work with his parents, Bob
and Carolyn Miller, who bought the family's first Boulder car wash
in 1975. And he's made Boulder his home ever since.
"Maybe I've been taking a
more active role as I get older," says Miller, who has worked with
the chamber in addressing the debate over the city's ratio of jobs
to its population. "Sometimes the business person is projected as
the big bad guy who just wants money and is sucking everything up.
But people need to remember that we live here, too, and we love
the place.
"Anybody you talk to here
has a real desire to be here. They could have picked another place
to do business."
In selecting its business
person of the year, the chamber looks for people who have consistently
contributed their business expertise to the city, Vice President
Alice Swanson says.
"We feel through his involvement
with the chamber and his involvement in some of the advocacy issues,
that he was a great candidate," she says.
Miller says he's not someone
who seeks the limelight and quips that the chamber "must have lowered
the bar" when it selected him.
"I'm fortunate, through the
chamber especially, to be able to be around people I admire and
respect," he says.
Miller can't hide his passion
for his business. He regularly checks in with a friend who owns
several car washes in Denver to compare notes on the industry. And
he loves to talk about water — and how we're going to preserve it."
"The way we dispose of water
is going to become more important than the way we consume water,"
he says. "When water goes back into a stream bed or a storm drain
or a ditch, it's not treated and it can pollute Boulder Creek. We
need to be more responsible."
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