Beaufort County, SC Water Use Rules: Recycled Water Rules (2026)

270 sets use-specific standards for vehicle services, and subsection C covers car wash and auto detailing uses specifically, as distinct from the auto painting/body shop, auto wrecker, and other repair-service standards in the same section. Car wash and auto detailing sites must design wash bay openings so they do not face road rights-of-way and minimize visual intrusion onto adjoining properties, and vacuuming equipment must be set back at least 50 feet from any adjacent residential development. The use must also provide adequate, enclosed trash storage facilities on site.

The recycled water mandate is the fourth and most specific standard in the subsection: a car wash is required to have an operational recycled water system where a minimum of 50 percent of the water it uses is recycled. That figure is a hard floor, not a target, and it applies regardless of the number of wash bays or the method used, whether a bay-level reclaim system or a facility-wide reuse system, so long as the installed system is operational and meets the 50-percent threshold.

Because the standard sits in the use-specific standards article rather than the general development standards, it applies on top of, not instead of, any state or federal wastewater discharge permitting the operation separately needs.