(Boston) EPA to approve dumping ban (boat sewage) - Boston Globe

[Eugene]

Source: Boston Globe

EPA to approve dumping ban
Boston Harbor boaters will have to clean up their habits

By Michael Levenson, Globe Staff | August 7, 2007

Boston Harbor, after a $4 billion cleanup that renovated large
waste-water treatment facilities and sewer systems, is set to
become the largest port on the East Coast to ban a smaller
but no less insidious source of pollution: sewage dumped by
boaters into the sea.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency said it is
planning to approve a request by state and local officials to
ban dumping in Boston Harbor. The no-discharge area would
extend three miles from Boston, Winthrop, Revere, Quincy,
Hingham, Weymouth, and Hull. After the ban takes effect
next spring, boaters would be required to dump sewage
farther out to sea or unload it at pumping stations that
flush the waste into municipal sewer systems.

Robert W. Varney, administrator of the EPA's New England
Office, said commercial and recreational vessels dump
thousands of gallons of sewage into the harbor every year.
The waste can poison shellfish beds and drive up the number
of days that local beaches must close to bathers. Violaters
could be fined up to $2,000.

-snip-

But few large port cities, where commercial and recreational
boat traffic can be high, have such bans. The port of New
York has no such protections. San Diego is one of the few
cities to approve a dumping ban, the officials said.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/08/07/epa_to_approve_dumping_ban

[Cooley Hurd]

1. I caught someone dumping their port-a-potti into my lake earlier this year...

I told the marina owner, who promptly penned a nasty-gram to the offending fuckwit. Saw him at the pump-out station the next week.:thumbsup:

[yy4me]

2. I live on the North Shore of Boston and frequently must drive

along the beach roads. For years we have been told that the "stink" and black sludge on the beaches is algae. The way the current and tides run in this area, the sludge drifts on shore. It is disgusting. The beaches in some of the North Shore towns have already been closed this year for a few days because of some bacteria problem.

The article seems to confirm what we all think about what floats in from Boston Harbor. It is not all boaters, there is plenty of dumping from industry and from unknown sources but every bit more added just makes the problem worse.

[TreasonousBastard]

3. The Port of New York may have no restrictions, but...

that's not where the recreational boating is. All the NJ and NY towns around the harbor have such restrictions as far as I know, and most even have "no fish guts in the water" rules at the filleting stations.

[One_Life_To_Give]

4. Clarification, Raw Sewage Dumping has been illegal for years

The dumping of untreated Sewage within the 3 Nautical Mile limit has been illegal for many years. What this adds is a restriction on "Treated" sewage being discharged within the 3-mile limit. Treated sewage is processed by a Type 1 or Type 2 Approved Marine Sanitation Device.

As a practicle matter. Only banning vessels with thru hulls for Marine Sanitation Discharge would completly prevent illegal discharges. But I don't see how this could realistically be enforced. Not without enacting a national ban on thru hull MSDs for all vessels under 65ft.