It's official. Puget Sound boaters are full of it
- Thread starter Justin_NSA
- Start date
For two years I attended ASA classes out of Bellingham WA. A third year the instructor invited myself and several of my mates on a month long cruise as crew to the north end of Vancouver Island. The entire time the skipper emptied his black water tank into the sound saying that his contribution was nothing compared to the Orcas and other marine mammals. Seemed odd to me as he is a member of several environmental groups in the area. I sail the Great Lakes where a "Y" valve is forbidden. The Sound had better begin to add to the numbers of pump-outs as I recall they were few and far between; at least in Canada.
The USA can’t compel Canada to comply with US law and our designated no-discharge zone. The poop hits the water at the border. USEPA has already determined there are enough pump outs in US waters. Expect there will be confusion at the dock and amongst boaters as they get used to the pump-out procedure. There will be a contact number for Washington state where you can report non-working pump out facilities. The state will be subsidizing marina operators to install and maintain these systems.
I just do not get it. Last year the City of Seattle dumped hundreds of thousands of gallons of raw sewage into Puget Sound and nary a peep was said. Even our politicians were silent on the matter, but will prattle on about their concern over the environment. Yet, us boaters take it in the shorts all the time
, no pun intended.
No law needed here, since I remain quite diligent about using the pump out resources available at most all of our marinas. Different story further north into British Columbia where stations hardly exist north of Nanaimo.
, no pun intended.No law needed here, since I remain quite diligent about using the pump out resources available at most all of our marinas. Different story further north into British Columbia where stations hardly exist north of Nanaimo.
Not a whole lot south of Nanaimo either especially on the east side of the islands. And, most of the time they dont work or you cant get to them.
Only if you call several hundred thousand dollars in penalties “nary a peep”. Seattle is under a consent order to quit dumping Combined wastewater into the sound (storm water / sewage). And it isn’t raw sewage, it is chlorinated sewage, essentially the same thing a boater marine sanitation device (MSD) discharges.
And who, in the end, pays for those penalties? Anybody fired over this negligence? Were the environmentalists in the streets protesting? Were the politicians rushing to the cameras to call for new laws, regulations, etc.?
Utility rate payers, the Seattleites with toilets!
An indignant old hillbilly politician once remarked, “why should I have to pay, I’ve been sh*ting for free in that creek all my life!”