TAMPA, Fla — Grass and tree pollen are just about everywhere. You may have a thick layer collecting on your car, and naturally, you want to wash it off.
But right now, because of our drought, the Tampa Bay area’s water restrictions only allow you to wash your car once a week on the same day you can water your grass, and the hose has to have a shut-off nozzle.
Tampa Bay 28 heard from many people on social media who wonder why, if that rule is in place, commercial car washes are still allowed to operate.
WATCH: Why are car washes able to operate as Tampa Bay area deals with drought?
The simple answer is that many modern car washes recycle a vast majority of water.
Now, even though we saw rain on Tuesday, “It’s not going to make a huge dent in the drought that we’ve seen. We’re more than a foot behind in terms of rainfall over the last year,” said Tampa Bay 28 Meteorologist Greg Dee.
Even 1-2 inches over the past 24 hours just isn’t enough to get us where we need to be.
“It’s very likely that most of us will remain in some level of drought conditions through at least the start of the rainy season,” Dee said.
That starts mid to late May. But any rain is much appreciated, and it’s nature's car wash, right?
“No, I don’t. No, no,” said Alyson Carswell, the customer experience manager at Woodies Wash Shack, when Tampa Bay 28 anchor Heather Leigh asked her if she agreed. “It may get the dirt, the pollen, the what you can see off, but you’re not getting those little things that will eventually hurt your car.”
But with water restrictions in place right now, washing your car at home is really limited.
“You like to wash your car,” Leigh asked Teagan Barnhill, who was going through Woodie’s Wash Shack off Gandy Boulevard on Tuesday. “Yeah, love it. Even when it’s raining, clearly,” said Barnhill.
Commercial car washes are not restricted right now, even though we’re in a drought.
“When you wash your car at home, you’re typically using about 120 gallons per car. So when you come through Woodies, we have a three step process, and we recycle our water, so we’re saving about 100 gallons per car,” said Carswell. “When you’re washing 11,000 to 12,000 cars on an average Tuesday, that’s a lot of water we’re saving.”
Barnhill thinks coming to Woodie’s is not just convenient and budget-friendly but water-conscious too.
“Are you concerned about the drought?” Leigh asked Teagan.
“Yeah, I mean, we don’t want that. I’m from the Tampa Bay area and my whole life, and usually it comes and goes, but lately we’ve been noticing it’s more severe this year,” said Teagan. “I think it will balance itself out, but I think we need to do our part while we can.”
Carswell said the only time they use fresh water is at the very end during the final rinse.
“It goes through two different filtration systems, and then the third one, it uses ultraviolet lights, and it sanitizes the water, and then it goes back through our system to recycle," said Carswell.
The Southwest Florida Water Management District (SWFWMD) told Tampa Bay 28 the modified phase III water shortage order treats all car washes the same.
“The current water restrictions are designed to allow businesses to continue their normal operations with as little disruption as possible,” said SWFWMD
That means that ones that don’t have this recycling technology can still operate normally. However, the district is still encouraging people who want to wash their car to do it at a car wash that has the recycling technology.
Share Your Story with Heather
Heather Leigh was born and raised in Tampa Bay. She’s invested in telling stories from Seminole Heights and Ybor City and helping you find affordable childcare. Send Heather a message with any ideas you’d like to share.
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