It's only a guess (an intelligent one, I hope; I wouldn't call myself a
chemist, although I've studied a fair bit of chemistry in my time and
have worked in laboratories), but I would say that by the time the acid
is done with the garage floor it's no longer going to be acidic -- but
that's no guarantee that the products of the chemical reaction won't
harm the wildlife.

By far the safest would be to get the stuff out of that local watering
hole as soon as possible.

MB


On 09/17/04 12:31 pm Bill Lewis put fingers to keyboard and launched the
following message into cyberspace:

I am about to do the epoxy finish on my garage floor, and I have a
question about the acid used during the etching process. Basically, my
dilemma is this: About 15-20 feet from the bottom of my driveway, there is
a 8-12ft diameter perpetual puddle that is consistenly fed by rain and all
of my neighbors' sprinkler runoff. This puddle is used by the local
wildlife (birds, etc) all the time. This puddle is also where my runoff
will go when I rinse the acid from the floor after etching. Now, I'm not
interested in killing/harming/whatever all of the animals that use this
puddle, so my question is this: is the acid nuetralized or anything after
the use on the garage floor, or would it still be toxic? My thought would
be to use a push broom/squeegee to get this puddle moving and the area
rinsed after acid exposure if I have to.


Any input would be appreciated (particularly if you are a chemist! ;p)