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EDINBURG — Take one look at social media after new headlines splash across local media warning of the dire state of the Rio Grande Valley’s water scarcity crisis, and one question repeatedly rises to the top: What about car washes?
While Valley residents are increasingly being asked to conserve water by reducing how often they water their lawns, remembering to turn off the tap while they brush their teeth, and other water conservation measures, many often wonder if such restrictions are similarly imposed upon commercial water users, as well.
To that end, Edinburg has become just the second city in recent months to impose new regulations on perhaps one of the most visible kinds of water users around — commercial car washes.
Effective immediately, a new car wash establishment cannot be located within a two-mile radius of an existing car wash. Further, any new car washes must also include water recycling systems to capture and conserve as much water as possible.
Previously, Edinburg has not required car washes to include water recycling systems, city staff said.
The new restrictions come as part of an update to the city’s drought contingency plan, which state law mandates be refreshed every five years.
For many municipalities in the region, including Edinburg, those policy updates are happening now. They’re happening in a year that has seen historically low water levels at the two international reservoirs responsible for supplying approximately 70% of the Valley’s water.
In mid-June, the combined U.S. storage at Falcon and Amistad reservoirs plummeted to an all-time low of just 18.14%.
As rains have washed intermittently over the region this summer, those levels have ticked upward slightly to about 20% — a figure that continues to be alarmingly low.
Meanwhile, car wash installations are ubiquitous, and seemingly more pop up each week.
Already, 16 car washes dot the Edinburg landscape, Planning and Zoning Director Jaime Acevedo said during an Edinburg City Council meeting Tuesday night.
That includes full-service automated car washes, do-it-yourself spots, and three establishments that are currently under construction, including one that’s catty-corner to the Edinburg Police Department, Acevedo said.
A map included as part of the meeting agenda packet pinpoints the location of each establishment and shows in stark relief how all of them sit within the two-mile radiuses of each other.
“This is just putting a space between all the car washes. We see that there’s a car wash right across the street from each other. I’ve always advocated that if there’s a way that we can kind of plan that better,” Place 1 Councilman Dan Diaz said.
“Recently, it rained, but still, water is a very, very important subject. We’re considering measures that are gonna change the way we live day-to-day and do business,” Diaz added.
While Diaz lauded the new regulations, Edinburg Mayor Ramiro Garza Jr. asked Acevedo how city staff had come up with the two-mile radius.
The P&Z director said Edinburg had looked to Brownsville for inspiration.
In March of this year, the Valley’s largest city became the first to impose car wash restrictions when the Brownsville City Commission approved a five-mile limit.
But that radius seemed a stretch too far, Acevedo said.
“We have a one-mile radius and we have a two-mile radius maps that were kind of entertained,” Acevedo said.
“Brownsville did a five-mile radius. We thought that that was a little bit too much, so we kind of landed somewhere in the middle (at) two miles,” he added.
As with any other commercial or residential customer, commercial car washes draw their supply from Edinburg’s potable water lines.
Data included as part of Tuesday’s packet show that the car washes — particularly, the automated ones — are high volume users.
A typical commercial water customer may use about 50,000 gallons of water per month, according to discussions the city held in January regarding the results of a utility rate study.
But for the city’s highest volume commercial car washes, that water consumption rate can vary anywhere from 450,000 gallons to more than 1 million gallons per month.
The data show that the Bluewave Car Wash on West University Drive used more than 10.4 million gallons of water between August 2023 and July of this year.
Meanwhile, Club Car Wash on North Jackson Road used more than 8 million gallons, and the Bluewave on West Monte Cristo Road used more than 7.3 million gallons over the same 12-month period.
As for the do-it-yourself establishments, their usage ranged from 39,900 gallons for the EZ Clean Car Wash located on East University Drive, to just over 2.4 million gallons for the EZ Clean Express located on North Closner Boulevard, the data show.
