THOUSAND OAKS : Concerns Arise Over Mobile Car Washers

Two months after approving new regulations on mobile car washers, the Thousand Oaks City Council will review the issue again, focusing on concerns that runoff from dirty vehicles may be polluting storm drains.

Most council members thought they had settled the matter in November, when they decided to charge mobile car washers an annual $150 licensing fee and keep them out of the busiest shopping-mall parking lots. The mobile washers also agreed to stay at least 75 feet from the nearest storm drain.

City staff spent two months drafting a law to meet the council’s specifications and scheduled a vote for Tuesday’s meeting.

The item was placed on the early portion of the agenda, which is reserved for non-controversial topics. Yet environmentalists and owners of drive-through carwashes have served notice that they will raise a fuss.

Jack Galley, president of the Conejo Valley Car Wash Assn., wrote a letter to the council indicating that he will bring new evidence that his mobile competitors let contaminants run into storm drains. Cassandra Auerbach, the local leader of the Sierra Club, also wrote a letter condemning the mobile car washers for “dumping industrial waste into storm drains.”

The council will consider all the evidence at 5:15 p.m. Tuesday.

The council also will decide whether to charge mobile car washers a fee of up to $1,032 a year to cover the city’s costs for catching and treating the polluted runoff.

“The issue has always been whether or not mobile car washers pollute,” Councilwoman Judy Lazar said. “At first, we thought they did. Then we got a report back (from the Regional Water Quality Control Board) saying they didn’t. Now this. It will be interesting to listen.”