T&T: potti-patrol

[Leonard Brunotte]

Is New York still taking their trash out on barges for dumping?

-----Original Message-----
From: trawlers-and-trawlering-bounces at lists.samurai.com
[mailto:trawlers-and-trawlering-bounces at lists.samurai.com]On Behalf Of
Faure, Marin
Sent: Friday, October 31, 2008 1:57 PM
To: trawlers-and-trawlering at lists.samurai.com
Subject: T&T: potti-patrol


>Yes, sir. I certainly love that logic. I'll stop when all the others
do. Every change I am aware of starts with one person doing it, then two
people etc etc.

That makes sense for some changes, not for others.  It's a matter of
scale and logic.  Boaters who pump out their holding tanks in harbors,
marinas, and bays where there is minimal water exchange are doing a
pretty stupid thing regardless of whether it is forbidden by regulation
or not.  It's common sense not to poop in the pool you're sitting in.

But where you have a city of millions of people dumping untreated sewage
directly into a body of water like the San Juan Strait with its strong
currents and very high water exchange rate, if every recreational boater
who went through those same waters pumped their holding tanks as they
did so, the difference they would make would be irrelevant.  Hell, the
orca J, K, and L pods crap out a whole bunch of "effluent" every day in
these waters and when you add in the thousands of seals, porpoises, and
dolphins in the same waters, that's a lot of sewage.  Probably more
volume in a year than recreational boaters would put out in that same
year if they were allowed to pump their tanks. (I'm not counting the
largest segment of boats in our waters which are small sportfishing
boats with no or minimal head facilities.  These folks have been "bucket
and dump it" operators all along and will continue to be.)

Technically it is of course correct in that if one person stops dumping
their tank at sea there will be that much less effluent in the water.
But that has to be balanced against reality.  The reality of a 25 gallon
tank being emptied overboard a few times a year vs. a city of several
million pumping ALL their sewage into the same water 24/7/365.  The
reality of going miles out the way when the holding tank is full to pay
$80 (as one poster experienced) to pump their holding tank into a
shoreside system that simply returns it to the same waters via the
municipal sewage system.  For the greenies, which is worse--- using the
fuel and generating several hours of evil diesel exhaust by going miles
out of the way to pump out a full holding tank, or pumping out the tank
into high-dispersal waters, running the boat less hours, and generating
fewer emissions?  Tough dilemma and you can't have both.  Maybe
recreational boats should be banned altogether.  Solves both problems.

One poster who obviously knows what he's talking about described the
difference between pumping sewage into waters with currents, high water
exchange rates, and high dispersal rates, and pumping into waters with
little current and low exchange and dispersal rates.  Seems to me
there's the smart answer.  Don't pump holding tanks into waters where
the stuff will remain concentrated, build up over time, and cause all
the problems attendant with this sort of thing--- oxygen depletion, high
E-coli counts, etc.  Like bays, river backwaters, marinas, and most
lakes.  If pumping out into a shoreside facility is impractical, or in
the case of most areas along the Inside Passage through BC and SE
Alaska, impossible, then pump the tanks in large bodies of relatively
fast-moving water with high exchange and dispersal rates.  But to imply
that a boater is always in the wrong because he or she dumps their
holding tank overboard if the alternatives are impractical or impossible
makes no sense.

______________________________
C. Marin Faure
GB36-403 "La Perouse"
Bellingham, Washington
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