...besides, Baja Naval, divers, yards, paint manufacturers too! We hardly stand a chance even though we have a pretty good statewide lobbyist group. I'm going to write them another check right away!
Sorry JK................ I can't agree with this IF it becomes the only game in town (if more states ban copper bottom paint) the price will increase not decrease. The only thing that will bring the cost down is if other manufactures make a similar product and there is competion not demand. The other thing is this is still unproven product. I also got to believe that the price will stay artifically high. Does any one have any personal experiance with using this product ? So far only fstbttms has said he knows of one test boat and more or less said it was OK ....not what I call a ringing endorsment. Can anyone else shed some light with personal experiance ???
That's rich. You pay the lowest hull cleaning rates in the country. The guy who actually cleans your boat is likely barely scraping by.
Why do you support this bill? Surely you have enough business without it judging be how often I see you around the marina. This is a bill targeted at only recreational boaters, and it doesn't apply to commercial shipping or commercial fishing boats. The fact that it applies to only recreational boats is especially disturbing to me.
Don't get me wrong- as a hull cleaner, I love copper-based anti fouling paints. They work great and when they are well maintained, they make my job easy. But as a small businessman who wants see his industry continue into the future and to be able to guide his own destiny, as well as protect the environment- I (and the California Professional Divers Association, of which I am a Board member and whom I represented before the state Senate) realize that copper has got to go. Over ten years of voluntary efforts to bring California's waterways into compliance with federally mandated copper levels have failed. It is clear now that if we are to achieve these water quality goals (and we have to acheive them, by law), the only way it is going to happen is if the copper in anti fouling paint is taken out of the equation.
Well, I'm sorry, but you're wrong. Three separate studies done over the last decade show that copper-based anti fouling paints contribute the majority of the copper loading in marinas. We aren't taking about reducing copper in open waterways- it's not a problem there. It is a problem and it does exceed federally-mandated levels in areas where pleasure craft congregate, ie: marinas and boat basins.
I simply HAD to hold back my fingers in responding to this one!
Pal, I got way more skin in this game than you do, despite your bitching that you might not be able to find your favorite anti fouling paint on the shelve at West Marine in ten years. And I have done my homework. You are simply quoting from the paint and chemical manufacturer's web site. What the hell did you think they were going to say, that the product they are selling is bad? Give me a break.
Stu, it doesn't matter how many boats are being cleaned or how frequently that cleaning happens. Copper leaches out of anti fouling paint at a proscribed rate 24/7/365 until that copper is all gone. So every boat that has anti fouling paint (essentially 100% of the boats living in the water) is pumping copper into the marina non-stop. Hull cleaning contributes a very small spike in copper levels during the hull cleaning event, but there is X-amount of copper on a boat's bottom and all of that copper is going to get into the water, whether or not the bottom is cleaned.
If you don't want hull cleaners advocating for a ban on copper, why don't you tell the boatyards and marinas to lay off hull cleaners? Hey, I'm just a bottom scraper, I have no power and even less money. I, and my colleagues, have been fighting this battle for ten years, and we're losing. For instance, the California Clean Marina Program has adopted (at the behest of some of these powerful waterfront stakeholders) hull cleaning Best Management Practices that, if enforced, would mean that I would be essentially unable to effectively clean your hull unless you had it cleaned every 2 to 4 weeks. Does that sound appetizing to you? Do you want to have to haul your boat every time you simply want to clean the bottom? Because that's what these guys want you to have to do. Now a bill comes up that not only helps eliminate the copper that is the cause of all this, but helps me be able to continue to properly maintain my customer's boats at a reasonable cost as well? Yeah, I'm going to support it.