Come on now . . . .
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) being asked to make "Puget Sound, Lake Washington, Lake Union, and the Lake Washington Ship Canal 'no discharge zones', or areas where it is illegal to dump any sewage from boats of any size"? (Seattle Times, February 20, 2014)
Granted, there is a serious environmental issue with pollution of the waters in which many of us cruise, a lot of it from industrial and urban discharge. Yet a reading of this news item, as well as news coverage by KING-TV5 the day before, somehow suggests that pleasure boaters may be cavalierly dumping raw sewage a lot of the time.
Seem to me that the USCG already is pretty strict about marine toilets being set so as not to discharge overboard (that famous "Y - valve"). It's one of their "must see" items when doing a boarding inspection! Ditto the USCG Auxiliary free courtesy inspections. And what surveyor misses this with when crawling about our boats? Many marinas also check this - - I've had to explain my Lectrasan Type I MSD connected to an aft toilet. Plus, in many years of cruising the Salish Sea I've only encountered probably once or twice someone discharging raw sewage. In my own boating instruction program, I have a whole section devoted to Pollution Control, and I'm sure other instructors do, too.
I suppose that legally we're only restricted within two miles of the shoreline (remember, all the waters named in the Times article are "international", not "inland" waters). However, there are very few places in Puget Sound where there is "open water", i.e more than two miles off any shoreline. OK, I could probably discharge midway between Edmonds and Kingston - - I've got a bit less than a nautical mile there.
I'm all in favor of the many agencies pushing for a a "no discharge zone". Pollution in the Sound is bad, And it gets more critical as development increases. As the stickers on the storm drains, some many miles from the Sound say, "Puget Sound starts here".
But please don't suggest that we boaters are the bad girls and guys, even if you're reporting on a critical concern that we, too, share.
2 comments:
Mike, my own personal observations having lived on the lake for the last 25 years is that it is as good as it has ever been! I can clearly see 30 feet down in the sunlight now.
It's not the boaters who are dumping raw sewage into the Sound. The dirty little secret is that it is Seattle! In fact, all that carefully collected sewage from boaters' holding tanks is turned over to Seattle for treatment... and likely ends up in the Sound anyway.
Here's a quote originating with Seattle Public Utilities:
"According to SPU, last year 89 sewage overflows sent 57 million gallons of raw sewage and polluted stormwater into the bay."
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