{"id":226081,"date":"2026-04-10T09:45:58","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T09:45:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/226081\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T09:45:58","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T09:45:58","slug":"why-are-car-washes-able-to-operate-as-tampa-bay-area-deals-with-drought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/226081\/","title":{"rendered":"Why are car washes able to operate as Tampa Bay area deals with drought?"},"content":{"rendered":"

TAMPA, Fla \u2014 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.<\/p>\n

But right now, because of our drought, the Tampa Bay area\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

WATCH: Why are car washes able to operate as Tampa Bay area deals with drought?<\/p>\n

Why are commercial car washes able to operate as the Tampa Bay area continues to deal with drought?<\/p>\n

The simple answer is that many modern car washes recycle a vast majority of water.<\/p>\n

Now, even though we saw rain on Tuesday, \u201cIt\u2019s not going to make a huge dent in the drought that we\u2019ve seen. We\u2019re more than a foot behind in terms of rainfall over the last year,\u201d said Tampa Bay 28 Meteorologist Greg Dee.<\/p>\n

Even 1-2 inches over the past 24 hours just isn\u2019t enough to get us where we need to be.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very likely that most of us will remain in some level of drought conditions through at least the start of the rainy season,\u201d Dee said.<\/p>\n

That starts mid to late May. But any rain is much appreciated, and it\u2019s nature’s car wash, right?<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, I don\u2019t. No, no,\u201d said Alyson Carswell, the customer experience manager at Woodies Wash Shack, when Tampa Bay 28 anchor Heather Leigh asked her if she agreed. \u201cIt may get the dirt, the pollen, the what you can see off, but you\u2019re not getting those little things that will eventually hurt your car.\u201d<\/p>\n

But with water restrictions in place right now, washing your car at home is really limited.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou like to wash your car,\u201d Leigh asked Teagan Barnhill, who was going through Woodie\u2019s Wash Shack off Gandy Boulevard on Tuesday. \u201cYeah, love it. Even when it\u2019s raining, clearly,\u201d said Barnhill.<\/p>\n

Commercial car washes are not restricted right now, even though we\u2019re in a drought.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you wash your car at home, you\u2019re 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\u2019re saving about 100 gallons per car,\u201d said Carswell. \u201cWhen you\u2019re washing 11,000 to 12,000 cars on an average Tuesday, that\u2019s a lot of water we\u2019re saving.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barnhill thinks coming to Woodie\u2019s is not just convenient and budget-friendly but water-conscious too.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you concerned about the drought?\u201d Leigh asked Teagan.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I mean, we don\u2019t want that. I\u2019m from the Tampa Bay area and my whole life, and usually it comes and goes, but lately we\u2019ve been noticing it\u2019s more severe this year,\u201d said Teagan. \u201cI think it will balance itself out, but I think we need to do our part while we can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carswell said the only time they use fresh water is at the very end during the final rinse.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt 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.<\/p>\n

The Southwest Florida Water Management District (SWFWMD) told Tampa Bay 28 the modified phase III water shortage order treats all car washes the same.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe current water restrictions are designed to allow businesses to continue their normal operations with as little disruption as possible,\u201d said SWFWMD<\/p>\n

That means that ones that don\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

Share Your Story with Heather

Heather Leigh was born and raised in Tampa Bay. She\u2019s invested in telling stories from Seminole Heights and Ybor City and helping you find affordable childcare. Send Heather a message with any ideas you\u2019d like to share.
.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Multiple Hillsborough County schools are closing down in 2027<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay 28 reporter Jada Williams has the latest on how Hillsborough County Public Schools is planning major student reassignments and school closures for the 2027-28 school year.<\/p>\n

Multiple Hillsborough County schools are closing down in 2027; parents aren’t on board<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla \u2014 Grass and tree pollen are just about everywhere. You may have a thick layer collecting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":226082,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[205,7083,101925,7084,525,7085,3073,7086,7087,276,135,137,136],"class_list":{"0":"post-226081","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa","8":"tag-abc-action-news","9":"tag-citrus-county","10":"tag-commercial-car-washes","11":"tag-desoto-county","12":"tag-drought","13":"tag-hardee-county","14":"tag-heather-leigh","15":"tag-hernando-county","16":"tag-highlands-county","17":"tag-hillsborough-county","18":"tag-tampa","19":"tag-tampa-headlines","20":"tag-tampa-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}