Advocacy

NECA’s leadership maintains contact with decision makers who affect the industry’s ability to do business. Through that contact, we learned of pending regulations before the DEP in Massachusetts that affect our industry. Of the five pieces of legislation that are currently open for comment, two have been identified as problematic: a proposal to require substantial escrow accounts for all washes that utilize an individual septic rather than a town sewer system; exemptions from hard surface, run-off rules for businesses that have volume as high as 1,000 cars per day.

NECA has engaged legal representation to assist us in presenting the industry’s point of view. They succeeded in extending the appeals process to June 12th from May 12th. The extension will give us time to craft our response and provide information to decision makers unfamiliar with our industry and its commitment to conducting business in an environmentally responsible manner. The resolution of the proposed regulatory changes could have ramifications for the industry in neighboring states.