It seems like it's illegal to discharge overboard but ok if you discharge yourself while in the water.
Loophole perhaps?
Imagine the size of holding tank contents a whale discharges. :grin:

I see lots of people in lakes and springs, drinking and having a good time but no one
is getting out to go to the bathroom. :smt021



Jeff

 

C'mon Man. You are on Lake Erie, a lake that exchanges its water every how many days and sends the polluted water out to the Atlantic. There must be more important things in your life to worry about than someone taking a leak in your lake.

Here's a point to ponder.....even with Lake Erie dumping its water out to the Atlantic, the water you're getting to refill Erie comes from the lakes upstream from you, and MILLIONS of people up there have already peed in it.

Now THAT is going to keep you up at night! :smt021

 

It takes 2.6 years to cycle the water out of Erie. (and that's the shortest of the Great Lakes!)

 

And that is why I park as close to the spring as I can...
also known as first flush.

Jeff

 

I'm completely ok with "recycled beer" going into our lake one bladder-full at a time.

The scumbag who was on my pier who would pump his 60 gallon tank of sewage into the marina on the other hand... Yes TurdTim, EVERYONE was glad to see you not return this season!

 

Illegal discharge in Florida is just another revenue enhancing tactic by the local sheriffs. These are the fine folks that raid marinas and do the dye drop in the heads, if any dye shows up outside, even a very tiny bit, chaching! $500 to the county!

And never mind all the crap dumping the locals do living along the waterways, it's them rich fancy yacht owners destroying our environment!

 

I'm fine with that too!

 

Well technically he didn't give an estimation. He said 'how many days'. The answer is 949. :grin:

 

I'm guilty. I dump my holding tank into Lake Superior all the time.

Here's my holding tank.

 

I wonder where the fish empty their holding tank?

Not to make light of the subject. I would not hesitate to report someone discharging their holding tank illegally, but I have been guilty of creating a warm spot or two in the lake while scrubbing the hull.

 

More than one city dumpling raw sewage in the st lawerence seaway.

 

The ocean... nature's toilet.

 

Not to mention all of those Lake Erie Walleye discharging in the lake. As far as lake water retention, there are 2 different numbers. The total water replacement which is approximately 2.7 years and the flow through which is the flow that equals the volume, that is measured in days. These day with the water so high, the flow through is much much faster.

 

Fun conversation on a crappy topic.
Think if all boats were discharging in the marina after a nice day out on the water...I think its illegal due to the possible local effect it would have.

I feel better using a shore based pump out station but, don't think I'm saving the world by doing so....the city "treated" run off or accidental sometimes necessary (heavy rains) raw discharge is a far larger problem.

 

Mark.... exactly. It's feel good "****" because I never dump my holding tank into the water, only into a pump out boat. The pump out boat brings it to the town system,,,,which in turn during a large storm it can't handle, wait for it....dumps it into the water we boat in

 

That always amazed me. I think the State was dumping everything from Jones Beach in the Bay for years too. At least that's what the rumor was.
As for me, I use the pump out in the Bay, but if I am out in the Ocean I usually take the opportunity to legally dump. Haven't done it yet with this boat because the seacock is tough to get to, but did it regularly with the old boat because it had an easy to get to "Y" valve.
Then again, I have a pretty strict head policy. It's liguid only except in cases of extreme emergency.

 

I like go first arguments and I bet the Coast Guard and other powers to be would fully understand what he is saying and drop all their rules on discharging. Absolutely agree.

 

I think most people would be surprised if they new now much "treated" sewer is dumped into our lakes and streams by municipalities and private sewer companies. You only hear a fraction of how much is really dumped - the 300 gallons that flows into Lake Norman from a manhole overflow makes the news, what doesn't make the news is the 10's of 000's of gallons that are legally discharged every day by private sewer and water companies - think the small rural systems that support lakeside neighborhoods. The problem around Lake Norman is not the boats or even the big municipalities, it is the private companies that have failures in unmanned pump stations - that's how 50 or 100k gallons spill over a month or so because no one is watching it. I mean when you flush, whether on your boat, in your house or the lakeside restaurant - it goes somewhere!

So, is it right to discharged your holding tank overboard? Absolutely not, but is that the really problem? Absolutely not. I had always heard that most marinas on LKN quietly put dye randomly in holding tanks, so if the water around your boat turns pink you know what's up!

So should you pump overboard in a NDZ - NO! Is that the real problem in our lakes/oceans and rivers - no.

 

Lol treated? Macomb county dumped like 33 million gallons of raw sewage into lake st Clair this winter


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

What if you have a pig on board? is it allowed to go directly overboard or does it have to be trained to use the head?

 

What if you have a pig on board? is it allowed to go directly overboard or does it have to be trained to use the head?

My understanding is, if you go directly overboard, no problem - ie hang it over the side - perfectly legal. If you go in a bucket, or any other container, then dump it over board, that is a problem, at that point the container you just whizzed in is now considered an MSD and is subject to the overboard discharge laws.

 

My understanding is, if you go directly overboard, no problem - ie hang it over the side - perfectly legal.

I think I have just found a new use for the 'vent holes' in my swim platform.......

cliff

 

A few years ago (2014?) my towns treatment plant was overwhelmed by just 2 or 3 inches of rain over a two day period.
They released an estimated 25millon gallons of partly treat waste into the harbor!!!
Not a one-of event either!

Ever wonder why towns test the beach water quality for swimming??????
Its not the boaters or whales or aliens...it's $$ to upgrade facilities to handle it!
And.....they keep building more and more high rise residential buildings without talking about impact on existing systems that are affected.

 

If you go in a bucket, or any other container, then dump it over board, that is a problem, at that point the container you just whizzed in is now considered an MSD and is subject to the overboard discharge laws.

Crap... all those years I never knew the Country Crock bucket mom kept under the rear seat in our Stingray for underway relief was so sophisticated :grin:

(of course I say this with a Dometic 972 under the rear hatch of my 185...)

 

Such a timely thread. The CG Auxiliary was at our marina this past weekend offering safety inspections. As they passed my dock on Saturday I asked if they'd be willing to give me a "pass" if my macerator seacock was still open from winter storage. They said nope, gotta close it and lock it or remove the handle. No exceptions. I understood, thanked them for their time. I'll get 'em next time.

I had a pretty good chuckle as they walked away. Not 200 yards from where my boat is slipped a sewage line running under the Grand River ruptured back in March of this year. During the four days this leak was active it discharged 2,000,000+ gallons of untreated sewage into the river and ultimately Lake Michigan.

On a good year I might need to get pumped out a few times....80 gallons of mostly water? It's almost hard to take this particular law seriously when just a few short months ago we were "barley inconvenienced" by this 500,000 gallons per day of sewage dumped into the river by the city.

Alas....I'll get my safety inspection sticker later this year. Just need to remember to get that seacock closed.

http://www.mlive.com/news/muskegon/index.ssf/2017/03/no_contact_advisory_from_2m_ga.html

 

I'm always amazed that municipal sewage treatment plants dump bazilloins of gallons of untreated sewage into our waterways and nobody from the EPA or any other gubmint agency even looks askance at that.

But boy, should a boater dump his tank he's in deep sh!t.

 

I'd be curious about how hard it is to get away with if you boat on a large body of water (eg, Lake Michigan). Is a lake that size so extremely popular in the summer that you're constantly seeing traffic (and thus they might see a sewage discharge), even if you're 10+ miles from shore in open water?

Even if someone might cross your path, would they see anything? A Shurflo macerator discharge pump is 13 gpm or 1,664 ounces per minute. A boat at 25 mph is covering 2,200 ft/min. That's 3/4 of an ounce of discharge per foot of travel into the turbulent water of a wake, which would presumably mix it up more and make it harder to see.

I don't endorse this, mind you, but it makes me wonder how many people actually do it on larger bodies of water.

 

Municipal Sewage and septage (like from your tanks, or a septic tank) are quite different. Municipal sewage is mostly water. (Not that it makes it right)

 

This is turning into a real pissing contest :grin: