No Pumpout... Talk about being up Shoots creek

[Bad Obsession]

I was in the middle of doing some winterization to my boat yesterday. I am working on the features that I won't use if I am out on a daysail. I changed oil (made a mess) and transmission fluid. I drained the watertanks down and added antifreeze to the water system. I then ended up going to the Colonial Beach Yacht Club to get my holding tank pumped out. They said that their Pumpout is broken and has been since the tropical storm came through. They added that most of the facilites in this area are broken from the flooding from the storm.I am wondering about what we are supposed to do when this happens. It seems that a full service Yacht Club, by law, should have a working Pumpout. This item has been down for almost 2 MONTHS!!!! I wonder what everyone is doing with their heads (I don't want to swim in the area of Colonial Beach for a while). I am going to wait until the end of the month. If they don't have the pumpout fixed I am going to have to motor over to Cobb Island and use the marina there to pumpout. This sucks!

 

[Rich Stidger]

This issue was discussed a couple of weeks ago....

One of the solutions was to see if there is a mobile pumpout service that can come to you- even on land after your haulout.Check the archives for other creative ideas....

 

[Warren Milberg]

Try this link

for a mobile pump out company. They give a discount if you are a member of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. This company may not service your area, but may be able to provide a referral to a company that does.

 

[Anchor Down]

"This Sucks"

Gee, Wally: if it still sucked, there wouldn't be a problem, would there?

 

[Mike8245]

where to get orange dye pellets?

Alan, Really like you orange pellet waste tank plan. Do you by chance know where they get these pellets that would make a orange pool on dumping large enough to see?Great idea!! Thanks, Mike

 

[Peggie Hall HeadMistress]

It wouldn't do much good, Ross...

Without any means of mixing the bleach with the tank contents, you'd just have a tankful of waste AND a half gallon of bleach. The best solution to a lack of working pumpouts in your waters is a CG certified treatment device.

 

[Bob Todd]

"Far more tanks are illegally dumped..."

"than pumped out."I don't often doubt you, Peggie, but where do you get the data to substantiate this?Cheers,Bob

 

[RAD]

Bob..

To help answer the question "Southampton Town was receiving 600 gallons of sewage from land-based stations during the boating season, but, with the addition of pump-out boats, that amount jumped up to 68,000 gallons of sewage annually. Clearly, this increase in captured sewage was due to the convenience of the pump-out boats."And"The Town of Islip reported that in it’s first two full days of operation, Sunday and Labor Day, their new pump-out boat removed more sewage from vessels holding tanks than their land based station in East Islip had in the last three years."If they don't use a land based pumpout where is the sewage going?

 

[Bob Todd]

Circumstantial...

More convenient could simply mean that instead of getting pumped out elsewhere they were now getting pumped out locally.When I kept my boat in Kittery, ME there was no pumpout at the Navy Yard. I had to travel for a pumpout...so be it. Where I keep my boat now, there's a pumpout at the club plus a pumpout pretty much everywhere else you can go.People are pumping out in record numbers but local waters are still high in bacteria and closed to swimming/shellfishing. The local tree-huggers (Save The Bay) are blaming the boaters and have had yet MORE legislation shoved down our throats (at our expense of course) but have failed to address the real issue...failing septic systems, outflow from a treatment plant, and an entire town's storm drain system that dumps directly into the cove.I find it hard to accept fellow boaters readily accepting responsibility for something that has not been proven. Accepting responsibility in such a cavalier manner only stokes the fires of special interest groups to regulate us further. These groups are notorious for skewing, and in some cases totally falsifying, data.I'm sorry, but I won't budge an inch without a totally unbiased survey.I know hundreds of boaters that I associate and I can comfortably say that none of them violate the pumpout rule.Cheers,Bob

 

[Bill Roosa]

Build your own pumpout

Get a rectangular plastic holding tank slightly larger than the one on your boat. Have the local welder weld up a dolly for it so you can wheel it around. Attach a hand powered bilge pump (there are ones designed for this) and plumbing. Now you can get the stuff out of your boat. This only moves the problem unless you have someplace to dump sewage. Will the admiral go for dumping it down the toilet at home?

 

[Don s/v Tellico]

Bob ... here's some first hand experience...

I agree 200% that the towns/muni's with their released sewage FAR out pollute what all the boaters together could ever do. And, your point on giving the regulators ammunition is well taken. But, to put a fine point on the issue, come down to the Ches bay and spend a little time. You will see that folks have to pump it overboard, because there is no other option if you don't have a Type II device. Often times you will pass an obvious slime on the bay on Sunday evening heading in. There is simply no where to pump out for the zillions of boats unless you are downtown Annapolis (lots of marinas, excellent pumpout boat service), Baltimore, etc. Private docks, older marinas, etc. here don't offer the service, and there are hundereds if not thousand on the bay. I frequently go up to Annapolis for the night JUST to get the darned tank pumped out.And travel the ICW north/south for a while, I have. I can't count the times I've pulled into a marina as a transient only to hear the pumpout is broken, or they just don't have time to do it, or there's no one around to turn the machine on ...And, just a minor point, as for your speaking of all the boaters you associate with and their standards, isn't that about as weak as the circumstantial evidence you cite here? You have no actual knowledge of what they do. Allan, as for the pumpout/fuel/dye suggestion: lots of sailboats here on the bay go the entire summer on one tank of fuel. It's easy in/out to the bay and they sail otherwise. The same can't be said for their holding tanks.Yes, Lectra/San is the solution, but Santa hasn't brought me one yet.

 

[tom h]

what I did

I connected a reinforced hose (so it wouldn't collapse) from the holding tank to a 5 gallon container with two holes in it. The hose went into one holes and was sealed with a rubber glove. The other hole was a small one and to that I put the end of my wet dry vacuum hose. I turned on the wet/dry and the crap flowed into the 5 gallon holding tank, and the wet/dry stayed dry and clean. When the 5 gallon was almost full, I stopped the process and emptied it into the toilet at the marina. I did this 3 times and completely cleaned out the holding tank (about 12 gallons of poop at the time.)I do the same for diesel. I have a 55 gallon tank in my backyard and fill up a 6 gallon portable tank to transfer it to the boat (which currently has a 6 gallon tank). Since it's a sailboat, I only need to do this a few times a season.THIS IS NOT RECOMMENDED FOR GASOLINE AS THOSE FUMES EXPLODE.

 

[Alan]

Mike

Many would like to run away from this problem or pretend that it doesn't exist, but the fact remains that mandatory pumping is the only solution to this problem. As I said, Catalina Island has been using this technique for years with almost 100% compliance. I spoke to the harbor master about their plans and the town ordinance that backs it up. Anyone caught violating is banned from the city of Avalon for one year plus a hefty fine.The dye is available at www.brightdyes.com

 

[Bad Obsession]

I think I sturred up Shoots creek

Wow, I didn't realize how much stuff I would stir up with this post. I think that every marina, when they get their business license, should be required to have some sort of a pump-out, accessable to every boat at the dock!!! The marina I dock at is brand new and it is a "slip only" type of marina. I really think that it should be a law that they still have a pumpout. I think that MOST boaters would use the pumpout if it was convienent. Added to that, I believe that all pumpouts should be free. If a marina wants to run the business, they should have to provide that as part of the business. We already pay unGodly slip fees every year!If someone refuses to use a free and convienent pumpout, then they deserve what ever they get!

 

[tom]

Mandatory in Alabama

The law was recently changed in Alabama. Now a boat must be inspected annually and must stay at a marina that has a pumpout. There is a fine for staying permanently or transiently at a marina that doesn't have a pumpout. A recent storm tore up my marina and there is no pumpout... I don't know what the law is on this. I assume that the marina has a reasonable amount of time to make repairs before they enforce the law. All waters except the Tennessee river and Tombigbee waterway are no discharge in Alabama. But when you consider the number of cities on the TN river boats can't do much harm. There must be a couple of million people pooping in the TN river. Hopefully all of the wastewater treatment plants are operating and in compliance. But with Knoxville ,Chattanooga, Guntersville, Huntsville, and Florence to name a few I'd be surprised if all of their wastewater treatment plants are working and in compliance all of the time. I know one little lake (Boone) in East Tennessee that has five wastewater plants flowing into it's waters. It is something of a miracle that with 300 million people we can stand to walk around our waters much less swim!!!! Thank God for the clean water act!!!!!!

 

[Stu Jackson]

Bad's right

if they put them in, maintain them and make them easy to use, people WILL use them.Making laws that require pump-outs and then NOT making pumpout stations available is just plain stupid.But that's government's middle name anyway...

 

[tom]

That's the interesting thing about Alabama's Law

They make boats needing a pumpout stay at marinas that have pumpouts. This makes marinas want to have a pumpout. Many marina's don't charge for a pumpout and the ones that do usually charge $5. With virtually every marina having a pumpout I would hope that most boat owners pump out instead of pump overboard. Most of us swim and eat seafood so we probably care more about water quality than the average citizen.

 

[Don s/v Tellico]

OK Peggy...

I think you've answered this before, but don't the marinas get federal grants or something similar to install the p/o facilities? Are there no maint requirement or penalties if they don't keep them operable?Maybe you can give us a snapshot, don't recall that this is discussed in your book.

 

[Peggie Hall HeadMistress]

Don and Bob...

Don, you can read all about the Clean Vessel Act Pumpout Grant Program here: http://federalasst.fws.gov/cva/cva_info.html#CVAThe grants are available only for new equipment...there are no funds to maintain the systems, nor any penalties for failur to keep 'em operational.Bob, the data you want--if you're willing to wade through all of it--is here: http://www.epa.gov/owow/oceans/regulatory/vessel_sewage/ndzdocument.htmland here: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d04613.pdf And in several other reports that aren't on the web, but in my files.