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Cars and trucks pick up oils, brake dust and other chemicals from the roadways. When that’s washed off, it goes into storm drains and flows directly to the ocean, he said.
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So when it rains what happens to that water? Goes the same place wash water does. Do these oils and brake dusts only come off when professional detailers wash cars? Obviously the simple answer is 'no'.
If Oxnard was more concerned with water run off than finding another creative way of taxing businesses they'd require everyone to have their car professionally washed (with a wash mat of course) each and every time before it rained. I'm willing to bet there's more contamination entering the water from rain fall on dirty cars then there is from a simple ONR wash by a professional. So will EVERYONE who owns a car be forced to purchase and park their car on one of these mats each and every time and place there's a threat of rain??
Having said that, I *DO* think something like this could be adapted to govern those who use MANY gallons of water through a pressure washer/hose to clean a car. There's a run-off issue there compared with ONR or other No-Rinse/Waterless washes.
I agree with you that the image of Mobile Detailers needs to be improved, but I don't think a wash mat is going to be that singular change. Is it a step in the right direction? I think it is for those that go out to a job site and blast 15 gallons of water on a car and leave. Not so much for those that use a gallon or two of ONR wash and have maybe 15% of that hit the ground. I think that in and of itself is an improvement in image, using a fraction of the amount water in an environmentally safe formula with virtually no run-off.
How will mandating wash mats make the industry better funded and capitalized to start? Because a municipality is going to charge someone for a wash mat, that will deter those people operating on a shoe string budget? What happened to this countries entrepreneurial drive? If people had a solid idea and business model, they could go out and try to make it happen and become successful, now we'd like to limit that opportunity to only those that are better funded and have more capital available at start-up? This isn't the insurance or financial industry, massive start-up capital isn't mandatory, nor should it be.
I think that article is anything but compelling...