No more bottom cleaning

mquiet

mquiet

Well-Known Member
Aug 4, 2009
1,500
North carolina
Boat Info
1999 480 Sedan Bridge
Engines
Caterpillar 3196
Apparently NC has another new law. I was told it will be against the law as of April to have a diver clean the bottom of the boat with the exception of the running gear. Also new bottom paint must be copper free going forward. My diver used to get $2/foot to clean the underside. I guess that fee will go down if he is only doing the running gear. NC leading the way in taxation and job destruction.
 
I think I'd be taking some diving classes, what are they going to do, dive under your boat and see if it's clean? We have a nice sandy bottom area that we all go to and go under and clean our own during the year.


P.S Let me be the first to welcome you to the Commonwealth of VA...or to the great state of S.C.
 
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WA also has done away with copper-based bottom paints effective (I think) 1/1/2016. You can still buy it and get it applied before that date, but after that date I'll have to get it done in OR. As goofy as OR is about environmental issues, they haven't banned copper-based bottom paints yet.
 
I can see a whole bunch of divers on the bottom "looking for lost keys, wallets, sunglasses..."

Look at my user name. :)


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
I figure that law will go largely ignored and not enforced.

What was the rationale for the law? Diver safety from adjacent boats?
 
N.C. has gone to the green side. Even the marinas now have to have collection tanks for the runoff that occurs when you clean a boats bottom and the fines are heavy! But no more cleaning while in the water, that's going a bit to far. What, the barrnicals are polluting the river and bays now?
 
So they must not care that boats will need to burn more fuel to move around?
 
Good time to start up a haul-out service!
 
The funny thing is there is STILL no prof that Copper in Copper paint does anything bad to nature.... But it is again the "green" lobbyist who ban everything.

Next thing is they will ban copper used in wires.....
 
kaz911 said:
The funny thing is there is STILL no prof that Copper in Copper paint does anything bad to nature.... But it is again the "green" lobbyist who ban everything.

Next thing is they will ban copper used in wires.....
Click to expand...

Copper is a natural element, how can it be bad? :smt017
Up here in "Copper Country" it can be seen naturally and everything has been living fine since god only knows when.
Fits right in with the "Global Warming" thread we had going here on CSR.
 
ZZ13 said:
I figure that law will go largely ignored and not enforced.

What was the rationale for the law? Diver safety from adjacent boats?
Click to expand...
Are you kidding. We'll have police staked out in the areas around marinas with binoculars. Cops love easy busts with no risk to their safety. The job of an environmental cop just got a lot easier. There will be arrests and fines if people don't comply. You don't have to prove to the police you were cleaning the running gear. You have to prove it to the judge. Win or loose, the cop gets to keep his stats.
 
Gofirstclass said:
WA also has done away with copper-based bottom paints effective (I think) 1/1/2016. You can still buy it and get it applied before that date, but after that date I'll have to get it done in OR. As goofy as OR is about environmental issues, they haven't banned copper-based bottom paints yet.
Click to expand...

Our marina has a catch basin all around the area where they power wash and flush the engines before storage last year the state banned them from power washing the portion of any boat with bottom paint, they can still hand wash the bottom paint. They did send guys out with binoculars to sit and watch to see if they were power washing any bottom paint. The city monitors the storage tank for the runoff to see if there are any chemicals, oil etc in the water before it's released into the waterway it all goes through en elaborate filtration system.

Here's our new law.
Washington is the first state to ban copper-based bottom paint on recreational boats.

Gov. Chris Gregoire this week signed into a law a bill prohibiting the use of the paints on most recreational boats. Under the law, no new boats with copper-based bottom paint can be sold in Washington state after Jan. 1, 2018, and no paint with more than 0.5 percent copper can be used on recreational boats as of 2020.

The law applies to recreational boats 65 feet and under.

The bill was supported by the marine industry, as well as environmental groups, Peter Schrappen, director of government affairs for the Northwest Marine Trade Association, told Soundings Trade Only. It was introduced this year and passed on the first attempt with bipartisan support, he added.

“It’s a bill that we were proud of,” he said, predicting that other states probably will follow suit in the future. “Washington state is a harbinger of legislation like this.”
 
Our marina has a catch basin all around the area where they power wash and flush the engines before storage last year the state banned them from power washing the portion of any boat with bottom paint, they can still hand wash the bottom paint.

Wow... This is all incredible. If they have a catch basin, what's the problem with power washing? I hate to think what hand washing a bottom at fall haul out would cost (and how much time it could take)... I keep mine pretty clean, cut many are filthy!

Unfortunately, I imagine the People's Republic of MA will be one of the next states to jump on the bandwagon...
 
What do I know...

So move to South Carolina. I did. Diver is cleaning the bottom of my boat in a few hours.
 
When you run out of criminals to catch because of a growing, enormous police force (Coast Guard, EPA, Environmental Police, Harbormaster, State Police, Transit Police, local police, Sheriff's Department, Home Land Security, FBI, ICE, and others that don't immediately come to mind) and a decreasing crime rate, you have to manufacture criminals through legislation.
 
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It's amazing to me some of the laws in this state. So since divers can't clean, how does the government expect yachts to be cleaned? You can't just put them on a trailer, and it's hard enough with a lift.

Sometimes I just want to move to SC. They seem to have more common sense there.
 
The law seems illogical, the act of cleaning a boat bottom should never be made against the law. I can see the regulations on the chemicals, but not the act of washing...

Just more government overreach...
MM
 
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