At a sporadically busy section of Webster Avenue edging towards East Gun Hill Road, cars zip by Radame Jil.

For drivers who visit Jil, they can expect one detailed car wash for $15, a fraction of the price when compared to what a brick and mortar car wash would charge for a 20-minute wash. Some days he’s paid only $40 for 11 hours, the equivalent of $3.67 an hour. Other days he makes more, though way below the minimum wage. His boss, barely around, finances the supply of cleaning equipment. Exploitation is not on Jil’s mind. Neither is the rate. There’s no choice when there’s six children to feed; three in Puerto Rico and another three in Venezuela. Jil is entitled to legally work.

And unlike legitimate car washes, Jil’s affiliated with the growing number of unregulated mobile car washes spotted in the Bronx and upper Manhattan, raising concerns over business liability, employee protections and environmental conservation. The underground industry is now in the crosshairs of the 52nd Precinct, who’ve now begun issuing summonses to mobile car washes for blocking hydrants or streets. City and state environmental agencies have remained lax on these roving car washes. Neither agency returned repeated requests for comment.

The mobile car industry is attempting to legitimize itself. Websites offer customers the chance for mobile car washes to go directly to them, promising them an eco-friendly experience. But many don’t have the permits to use the proper solvents. Many would need a permit under the State Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (SPDES) program. 

In Norwood, at least four car washes have been spotted along Webster Avenue, with three-man groups relying on power washers, solvents, and elbow grease to detail a car. Payments can be as much as $15 cash and no sales tax. Business can stay open 12 hours or more.

At East 205th Street and Jerome Avenue, under the rumble of the 4 train subway, a handful of cars line up for service at a mobile car wash. The operation has settled there for the past year, just a block and a half away from Bedford Car Wash at the corner of Bedford Park Boulevard. It was the only brick and mortar car wash in the neighborhood up until a year ago.

At the mobile wash, a three-man team uses a DeWalt power wash, step stools, power vacuums, and Home Depot buckets to carefully detail an SUV. Runoff from the power washing water collects into a nearby storm drain, a state violation. Soapy water is barred from entering storm drains for fear it could pose danger to local streams and lakes. The car wash, meantime, continues to do it. Car washes are instead required to use a backflow preventer, a treatment device that prevents soapy water from entering the drinking supply. Mobile car washes aren’t equipped with that.

Then there’s the water, a resource the NYPD suspects is siphoned from a nearby hydrant and pumped into a tank rigged into a washer’s work van. Commercial car washes are required to pay $3.81 per 100 cubic meters of water.

The New York Car Wash Association, an advocacy group for legitimate car washes, has remained outspoken over the lack of oversight on mobile car washes, pointing to the use of unregistered soaps.

“These chemicals, other detergents and street dirt flow directly into the New York City sewer systems, putting us all in danger,” said the association’s president, Steve Rotlevi, in an email. “Honest, hard-working car wash owners rightfully follow numerous health and safety laws that are designed to protect car wash employees as well as the environment. These mobile car washes, however, do not follow such laws and regularly violate wage requirements and put worker’s health and safety at risk with unauthorized chemicals and lack of safety equipment.”

The owner of the East 205th Street location, Juan Gonzalez, candidly spoke with the Norwood News, admitting his business may be unregulated but he “doesn’t want to sell drugs” as a vocational option. On a full day, 110 cars can arrive for a wash, translating to $1500 a day.

“We’re here to work,” said Gonzalez. “There’s no other option.”

By all accounts Gonzalez, an undocumented immigrant hailing from the Dominican Republic, is a successful entrepreneur. A portion of the money he makes goes to his native country, while the rest goes to his overhead and employees, some of whom are also undocumented, and paid according to each car they personally wash. A large water tank is positioned there while an assortment of unknown solvents hangs on a rope. The street, in the meantime, is drenched with soapy suds, flowing to a nearby sewer drain.

Police have stopped by and issued tickets while offering their sympathies, Gonzalez said. With Gonzalez’s business attracting a steady stream of income, an NYPD summons is part of the cost of doing business. After all, he credits his employees for returning customers.

“We have experience,” said Gonzalez, who credited his employees’ careful hands for bringing him a steady stream of customers. “My workers don’t scratch them, but the car washes do. Here we don’t.”

At a recent community council meeting within the 52nd Precinct, which patrols Norwood, special operations Lt. Kevin Maloney said a dozen criminal court summonses were issued. 

“We can get them for, I think, a total of C summonses, which is criminal court summons for each individual washing the car, as well as being parked near a hydrant, which is a hydrant summons,” said Lt. Kevin Maloney of the 52nd Precinct, which polices Norwood. “There’s not a lot I can do in regards to an arrest situation, but if they’re properly ID’d with those summonses, there should be no warrants, they’ll be issued the summons.”

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) also handles enforcement. In one case, officers dealt significant fines to a mobile car wash owner for dumping chemicals labeled “Danger! Poison!” into the Harlem River. The owner was also charged with two misdemeanors for dumping harmful substances into the river. So far, the agency has not come to the Bronx.

But despite acrimony from the police, car wash association and state agencies, customers don’t seem to mind.

“There’s a personal touch,” said Anthony Velardo, a Bronx resident having his car washed down. Crews spent 20 minutes eliminating stains from inside and outside the car.

“This is a clean job,” said one customer named Jose, standing as he admired Radame Jil’s handiwork at the Webster Avenue location.

Susan Andrews, a teacher, paid $20 to get her car washed at the Webster Avenue location. “Every penny counts,” said Andrews. “A dollar is a dollar.”

Even the manager of Bedford Car Wash, Efrain Lanfranseo, sympathized with his competitors, indifferent over any potential threats to business at Bedford Car Wash.

“They have their business, we have ours,” said Lanfranseo, who added even mobile car washers do it “so they could eat.”

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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.