THOUSAND OAKS : City Rejects Ban on Mobile Carwashes

The Thousand Oaks City Council has backed away from a plan to ban all mobile carwash companies after state water officials said that such businesses do not pollute.

The state Regional Water Quality Control Board on Tuesday informed Thousand Oaks officials that such businesses are not required to seek a waste water discharge permit.

The news pleased Lance Winslow, the owner of a mobile carwashing operation, who was warned in January to stop washing cars until he obtained approval from the state.

“We won because now, no one can tell us we pollute the environment,” Winslow said Wednesday after the council decided unanimously not to impose the ban.

Last week the city threatened to shut down a carwash that Winslow planned to hold Saturday as a benefit for the Newbury Park High School band. The fund-raiser will be held as scheduled, he said.

Owners of carwashes at fixed sites lodged complaints about Winslow and the lack of city regulation over mobile carwashes. They claimed mobile carwashes leave a residue of harmful chemicals that would eventually wash into the city’s storm drains.

Carwashes at fixed sites are required by the city to filter water before it goes into the sewer system. They are also required by the state to deposit the remaining sludge at an approved disposal facility.

Thousand Oaks code enforcement Manager Don LaVoie said he had been told earlier by the state that the water that flows from washed cars could contain harmful chemicals.