[alberg30] Lectrasan MSD

> sunstone said:
> 
> Gee we've had holding tank, no discharge laws for years, seems perfectly
> reasonable to me, in fact I can't believe that any place on earth would
> allow raw discharge.   

John, it's not raw discharge that we're talking about, though the
county doesn't mind dumping thousands of gallons of that into a small
creek if they have problems with a pumping station.  The question is 
dumping small amounts of treated sewage.  Granted, this does add
nitrogen to the water, but probably not as much as fertilizing your
lawn.  So, I don't fertilize the lawn, prefering to grow my grass
and shrubs organically.

I guess that both sides of the Great Lakes are no-discharge areas, is
that not so?  What about Canadian ocean waters?

> Get after your legislators to require all marinas and yacht clubs to
> have pump out facilities, I mean you can't operate a restaurant without
> wash room facilities, apply the same principle.

In Maryland, they've made a big push for more pumpouts, requiring them
for marinas beyond a certain size and also making grants available 
for putting them in.  This has helped the situation such that the
state felt they could duplicate federal laws.  They now can enforce 
the regulations with the Natural Resources Police, giving an
economic benefit to the state and resulting in more enforcement.
Unfortunately, many of the new pumpout stations are at shallow
water locations, not of use to most sailboats.  Also, these stations
are not much use to those of us who don't keep our boats in a marina.
 
> The world will definitely be a better place for it.

I'm all for making the world a better place.  I have a Mansfield
system and I try to use it responsibly.  I live on the water and
sail on the water and I want it to be clean.  It's not clean, but
for reasons that have little to do with boats.

Back to the question of no-discharge zones, I just took a look at
the EPA web site and couldn't find a list.  They have a page
(http://www.epa.gov/owowwtr1/oceans/vesseldischarge/index.html)
that lists states with no discharge zones as of Feb 1998, and a
search turned up a few press releases related to areas of New
York and New Jersey.  I couldn't find any list of current no
discharge zones, however.  I've emailed an inquiry.

You can find the US law on Marine Sanitation Devices at
Title 33, chapter 26, subchapter III, Sec. 1322
(http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/33/1322.html).  The
no-discharge stuff is in subsection (f), particularly paragraph
(3):

   After the effective date of the initial standards and regulations
   promulgated under this section, if any State determines that
   the protection and enhancement of the quality of some or all of
   the waters within such State require greater environmental
   protection, such State may completely prohibit the discharge
   from all vessels of any sewage, whether treated or not, into
   such waters, except that no such prohibition shall apply until
   the Administrator determines that adequate facilities for the
   safe and sanitary removal and treatment of sewage from all
   vessels are reasonably available for such water to which such
   prohibition would apply. Upon application of the State, the
   Administrator shall make such determination within 90 days of
   the date of such application.

Note that none of this talks about graywater, which is defined at
the beginning of the subchapter.  That's a different topic and I
don't know what is the legal basis of such restrictions.

Also, the law provides for exempting procedures for vessels of 
the armed services.

-- 
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  George Dinwiddie                                  gdinwiddie at min.net
  The gods do not deduct from man's allotted span those hours spent in
  sailing.          http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Alberg30/
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