Serving the Industry and the Environment since 1955

WESTERN CARWASH ASSOCIATION
Formerly, CALIFORNIA CARWASH ASSOCIATION
1955 — Present

In 1955, the Western Carwash Association began as ACWA, the Automatic Carwash Association, in Southern California. By 1976, they became known as the California Carwash Association. The major issues addressed were local in nature and mostly labor related. A push to unionize small car wash operators and their employees by large union co-ops to control the industry was defeated. By this humble beginning with a very few conveyor operators as members, the informal group grew in members and the Association was formally incorporated as the California Carwash Association.

In 1980-81, several car wash industry associations existed in the state. The two major associations were the Northern California Carwash Association, the California Carwash Association and a smaller association operating in San Diego County. Memberships in those years were, CCA approximately 75-100, NCCA 50-75, and San Diego with about 35 members. In 1983, a new statewide organization had been proposed to provide a stronger voice for the car wash industry on state legislative matters and governmental regulations affecting the industry. The new organization would not replace existing trade associations now serving the car wash industry but would provide an umbrella organization to coordinate the activities of the existing associations and mobilize statewide action on issues of importance to car wash operators throughout the state.

The proposal for such an umbrella organization grew out of discussions at a statewide conference of car wash operators held at Lake Tahoe. The conference dealt with the many and growing problems facing the industry, economically and politically, and the need for more organized and concerted action to protect the interests of the industry.

The Boards of the California and Northern California Carwash Associations studied the proposal outlining the structure and purposes of the umbrella organization. It recommended establishment of a state Coordinating Council with a Board of Directors composed of the elected officers and other designated delegates from existing regional associations.

The purposes and objectives, set forth in the proposal, “are to provide liaison and coordination among the various Carwash Associations in California, to serve as a central exchange for information of value or interest to the Associations and their member operators with the objective of aiding and strengthening the industry, to coordinate and unify efforts on a statewide basis in legislative matters affecting the industry and in dealings with state agencies involved with the industry, and to provide any other services on a statewide basis that the participating Associations may determine are needed or beneficial to the industry.”

The California Carwash Association became a strong advocate for the car wash industry. With it’s presence in Sacramento we were able to establish standards that benefited our members in the underground tank laws, effectively addressed some iniquities in the labor laws under minimum wage and also sought relief for their members who were also offering gasoline and were not receiving their allotments during the gas crisis. Other issues that became problems were the water shortages of the late 1970’s and 1980’s. The underground storage tank laws requiring financial responsibility were a high priority in the state legislature.

Self-service operators began to join the association and regulatory compliance and environmental issues for our conveyor and self-serve operators began financially to impact our members and they needed to be addressed.

We are recognized as one of the largest and more active regional industry trade associations under the International Carwash Association with one of the larges regional membership in the nation. We started with 170 members in 1983 and grew to 513 by 1992.

The CCA began a dialogue with several operators in Nevada and Arizona in late 1990-91 by establishing an Ad0hoc Membership committee made up of Nevada, Arizona and California car wash operators. It was decided after a year of informal meetings in Nevada and Arizona to embark upon expanding the State organization into other states in include Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii. The interest in the other states in joining our strong association was increasing because of our focus on member benefits, i.e.:

• A property casualty insurance program custom designed for car wash operators.
• Health benefits.
• Experienced professional staff with their expertise in working with regulatory agencies and the legislature.
• The communication tools provided through our timely newsletter.
• Informational programs held at our annual convention and trade show held previously in Reno, Nevada, now in Las Vegas.

In 1994, the organization became the Western Carwash Association (WCA) and included the states of Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington.

A Charity Carwash Program was established in 2000 to promote water conservation among the members of the public and also to eliminate contaminated wastewater from being discarded into storm drains, which goes untreated directly to our local waterways. The program was enhanced and enlarged in 2001 and became heavily promoted among WCA members. Brochures, detailed instructions and four large full-color posters were developed that explain the benefits of local organizations holding their charity car washing events at WCA members’ car washes. Local organizations are still able to raise their necessary funds while helping to reduce contamination of local waterways and using less water during their charity car washing events.

The WCA has gained nationwide attention for its professionalism and especially the Board of Directors’ dedication and the hard work of its Environmental Committee when we published the Environmental Wastewater Report. Also, the WCA was awarded two environmental awards:

• In April 2001, the Eat Bay Municipal District (CA) presented its Pollution Prevention Excellence Award for 2001 to the Western Carwash Association. This award was presented because of WCA’s demonstration of positive pollution prevention. Our Charity Carwash Program is a major reason our association won this award.
• During an April 22, 2003 Earth Day Ceremony held by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 9 in San Francisco, the Western Carwash Association was among 44 western organizations and individuals recognized for their efforts to protect and preserve the environment in 2002. The CPA Region 9 Environmental Awards program acknowledges commitment and significant contributions to the environment in California, Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii, Guam and tribal lands. The winners were selected from over 200 nominees received this year from businesses, media, local, state and federal government officials, tribes, environmental organizations and citizen activists.

The WCA Web site at www.wcwa.org was first developed in 2003. The site was updated and enhanced in 2005 and again in 2009. The site provides information to the public on the home page as well as information exclusively to members in the Members Only section.

We were happy to join the annual Make A Wish Day and actively promote this program each year while encouraging our car wash members to participate.

We expanded our region in 2005 to include the twelve Western states:

Alaska Arizona California Colorado Hawaii Idaho Montana Nevada Oregon Utah Washington Wyoming

We continue to evolve and provide leadership on the many issues facing our growing industry.