New BC Pumpout Regs

[bobofthenorth]

I'm not sure whether this belongs here or in the general section - mods feel free to move it as you see fit.

The thread about tank capacity reminded me that there are new Canadian regs which actually were enacted several years ago but come into effect this May. Raw sewage can no longer be dumped within 3 miles of a BC coastline and treated sewage must be over a mile from the coast.

Here's a link to the act for the masochists among you:
Regulations for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships and for Dangerous Chemicals

And here's a link to Gabriola Sounder's short summary:
Gabriola Sounder News Online | News | Vessel sewage regulations coming into force this May

 

[Marin]

Bob--- Thanks much for bringing this to our attention. I've always been surprised that BC allowed raw sewage dumping at all in their waters since Washington has not allowed this since before I got involved with boating here.

The problem in BC is that pumpout facilities become few and far between as one goes farther north. Although I would guess that as the new regulations become more publicised the marinas in the more remote areas may find it beneficial to install pumpouts, particuarly if they charge for using them.

I notice in your linked article that if there is no nearby pumpout facility available boaters can discharge raw sewage if there is less than six miles between shorlines if the discharge is made in the deepest water with the strongest current flow. So at least there has been some common sense involved here.

 

[swampu]

I like the logic in the options. "The requirements for treatment are high and most pleasure and small commercial craft will not be able to install a treatment system that will be able to comply and will probably need a holding tank if they have a marine toilet." Nobody mentions if you can use a type 1 system, they just say the requirements are high and treated sewage cannot be dumped within a mile of the coast.

 

[rwidman]

In the USA, it was reported not long ago that North Carolina was trying to require boaters to keep a log of their pumpouts. I don't know if they inplemented this regulation or not. It would be pretty difficult to require out of state boats to show a log of pumpouts. And of course, a pumpout log could easily be falsified.

While we don't want the QEII emptying its holding tanks in the local harbors, the sewage from recreational boats seems pretty insignificant compared to the waste deposited in the waters by dolphins, whales, manatees, and other aquatic animals.

It's legal to pee or poop directly into the water but not if it goes through a head and a macerator first. What's the sense in this?

I think the reality is, if there are no houses or other boats around, the tank gets emptied. Not on a small lake of course, but in rivers and coastal waters.

 

[Larry M]

I find it interesting that BC is enacting pump-out regulations for vessels when Victoria still doesn't have secondary treatment and discharges over 30,000,000 gallons a day of raw sewage into the Straits.

 

[OFB]

Here we go again.

its oh so easy to make honest working folk criminals.

Fine em and tell em oh you are such bad folk.

Poo is not the issue here in the great white north.

The stuff from the roads ya that just fine aint it.

Mandate me to cruise 15 miles into the strait and into Vancouver past the inifective treatment at Iowna in the middle of winter. Oh so enviromental.
Past the slick of oil from the streets. Past the outflow's from you name it.

Then stand up in ottawa in the house and state look what I have done for the enviroment.

You guys down south need to start taking a look in the mirror as well. At what Washington state dumps into puget sound prior to pointing your fingers north.

My god just take a look at the Alaska and GOM issues.

What a pile of BS.

 

[Larry H]

See this site for info: Countering Misinformation and Junk Science - RSTV


Quote:

RSTV Response: 130 Million Litres sounds a lot but it is 99.97% water, has been subjected to preliminary treatment including 6mm screens (6 mm), and is discharged through 60 meter deep outfalls with long diffusers that ensure that the effluent is rapidly oxygenated. And the volume is miniscule compared to the incredible volumes of seawater and Fraser River water travelling out of the Strait, along the Canadian shore to the Pacific Ocean. Dr. Jay Cullen, a UVic oceanographer, has calculated it is 0.001% of the natural flow of water into the Strait of Juan de Fuca – the equivalent of one drop in a 5 liter bucket of water.(Another way of illustrating this is 130 Million Litres a day is 1 cubic meter per second. The Fraser river average discharge is 3500 cubic meters per second.)

Converting the above numbers shows that the 'sewage' discharge is 100 US gallons per day per resident, mostly water. Humans can only produce less than a gallon per day of 'sewage'.

The holding tank on my boat is 32 gallons and lasts two people about two weeks.

An unmentioned problem is after the holding tanks are pumped out at a pumpout, what do you do with the effluent?

Small marinas on islands or in remote areas do not have a city type sewage treatment plant, and salt water and chemicals used by some boaters can screw up a septic tank system.