Catch Basins for Mobile Car Washers OKd

Mobile car washers in Thousand Oaks will have to collect all runoff from dirty vehicles to comply with a new anti-pollution law--a requirement that could force them to raise prices.

Concerned about grit and grime washing down city storm drains, the Thousand Oaks City Council has passed an ordinance requiring all mobile car washers to set up special catch basins when they scrub vehicles. The catch basins, which resemble vinyl rafts, cost about $4,000.

In addition to buying the catch basins, each mobile carwash company will have to pay the city about $500 a year to cover the cost of enforcing the new law.

“They’ve just screwed the customers,” Lance Winslow, owner of the Car Wash Guys, said after last week’s vote. “Now we’re going to have to charge $10 instead of $5.”

Winslow also tried to dissuade the council from requiring catch basins by telling them that the vinyl rafts “come in orange and other bright colors, and they look terrible in a parking lot.”

But several council members said they believed it only fair to impose the catch-basin requirement on mobile auto scrubbers, especially since the owners of drive-through carwashes have to install similar devices.

Environmental activist Cassandra Auerbach agreed, telling the council that the need for catch basins would become obvious “if you could see some of the gunk that’s collected off cars--it’s disgusting.”

The ordinance passed last week also restricts mobile car washers from working in parking lots in front of strip malls, though they can set up their operations in back.