GL: US boats in Canadian Waters

[Ralph Yost (home)]

Talk about sensitivity....some of us are sensitive too....
This topic of the tight overboard discharge regs for Lake Champlain is 
discussed every year, sometimes more than once.
I think I have read that most boaters do not disagree with the need to keep 
the Great Lakes clean. I'm certainly in favor of it.
I think most boaters dont even disagree with the NO DISCHARGE provisions.
HOWEVER,
I do think most boaters think it is utterly STUPID to require the sanitation 
system to have to be disconnected. Wired or locked sea cocks, valves, etc. 
ensure no accidental (or intentional) discharge just the same as a 
disconnected discharge hose. Similarly, one who is predisposed to breaking 
this law will just as easily temporarily connect the hose as he would cut 
the wire tie or open the lock on a seacock. So it prevents nothing.

Then we have the economics of this law....the extremely high pump out fees 
on the Vermont side. These high fees do NOTHING to promote the desired 
behavior of boaters. If anything, it actually encourages people to avoid 
paying them and simply pump it out.

I work for the government. Its hard, I tell you, because the bureaucracy has 
been infiltrated with so much STUPIDITY, such as the disconnect law for Lake 
Champlain.
I'm sensitive to STUPIDITY IN GOVERNMENT !
R.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Wesley & Patty Eldred" <wpeldred at comcast.net>
To: <great-loop at lists.samurai.com>
Sent: Friday, February 20, 2009 8:21 PM
Subject: Re: GL: US boats in Canadian Waters


> Marty:
>
> I may be too sensitive about this topic, but Lake Champlain is shared by 
> New
> York, Vermont and, just barely, Quebec.  The laws to which we refer are
> exactly the same in New York and Vermont.  We may have our environmental 
> and
> political quirks here in Vermont but our uncompromising position on
> overboard discharge of any black water in Lake Champlain is shared by our
> neighbors.  Criticize the policy if you must but recognize that it is the
> policy of New York and Vermont, New York and Vermont, New York and 
> Vermont.
>
> Thank you
>
> Wesley, LNVT
> On Lake Champlain - when thawed
> wpeldred at comcast.net