"We contain our water" is easy to say and expensive to actually do. Here is what the equipment is, what each piece is for, and what a real setup looks like on site.
The equipment
Drain seals and booms
Physical barriers that close storm inlets before work starts. Seals sit over or in the inlet; booms are absorbent barriers that contain a perimeter where inlets cannot be individually sealed. Applied after water is already moving, they are decoration.
Berms and dikes
Used to define a work area on open pavement where the drainage path is not a single inlet. They create the pool the recovery system then empties.
Vacuum recovery
A high-powered vacuum that lifts the water off the surface. Reach matters more than raw suction: 200 feet of reach means the truck parks once and the crew works a whole yard, which is what makes recovery practical rather than a demonstration.
Transfer tank
Recovered water goes into a tank on the wash vehicle — 500 gallons in our case. Capacity sets how long a crew can work before returning. Water left on site in drums is not contained, it is postponed.
Disposal
The water leaves the property and goes to appropriate disposal. This is the step with a paper trail, and the one worth asking about.
How to tell whether a vendor has it
Look at the truck. Containment equipment is bulky and obvious — a recovery vacuum, hose reels, a transfer tank, cases of seals and booms. An operation running a pressure washer and a water tank on a pickup bed does not have room for it.
Then watch the first ten minutes of the job. A crew that contains walks the area and closes inlets before charging a hose. A crew that starts washing immediately has told you the answer.