Grey Water

[porman]

We just spent two nights at Discovery Harbour Marina in Campbell River, BC. Never stopped here before. While checking in, I was reading the list of do's and don't's. One of the items said No Grey Water Discharge Overboard In The Marina. I asked and they said it was true. They also said they don't have a way of pumping out grey water even if you have a holding tank for it. One of the sailboat live-a-boards said it was mostly ignored. We probably won't be staying here again.

 

[C lectric]

I just noticed, a few days ago, that no grey water discharge is allowed now in Tod Inlet.

Fooey. I gues we can't visit there anymore.

I built and installed the toilet holding tank many years ago but there is no more room unless I kick some thing else out. Engine

 

[rochepoint]

Pirates Cove Marine Park also.
"Park regulations prohibit the discharge of sewage or grey water while moored in Pirates Cove." quoted from the website.

C electric, could to tell me where you found the information about Tod Inlet?

 

[DDW]

We just spent two nights at Discovery Harbour Marina in Campbell River, BC. Never stopped here before. While checking in, I was reading the list of do's and don't's. One of the items said No Grey Water Discharge Overboard In The Marina.

Isn't there about a 12 knot current going past there twice a day? Is their seawall that effective?

 

[porman]

Well dang it. We were headed for Pirates Cove tomorrow.

 

[C lectric]

I think in the last or second to last issue of Pacific Yachting. An article about Tod Inlet.

 

[porman]

No grey water at Wallace Island either.

 

[psneeld]

We just spent two nights at Discovery Harbour Marina in Campbell River, BC. Never stopped here before. While checking in, I was reading the list of do's and don't's. One of the items said No Grey Water Discharge Overboard In The Marina. I asked and they said it was true. They also said they don't have a way of pumping out grey water even if you have a holding tank for it. One of the sailboat live-a-boards said it was mostly ignored. We probably won't be staying here again.

On their website, they also say no bilge water to be pumped in the marina basin.

Sounds like a marina run by non boaters.....no mention of oily water seoarators or solutions to a sinking that may be worse.

 

[CaptTom]

I'm not familiar with those places. Are they federally navigable waters?

This same issue comes up from time to time about Lake Champlain. It's federally navigable, which means neither NY nor VT can enforce their black and grey water system rules on transient boaters. But I've heard they try.

 

[kchace]

Nantucket harbor has the same prohibition against gray water. I think it's actually a local ordnance. I have no idea how it's enforced.

Ken

 

[porman]

I'm not familiar with those places. Are they federally navigable waters?

This same issue comes up from time to time about Lake Champlain. It's federally navigable, which means neither NY nor VT can enforce their black and grey water system rules on transient boaters. But I've heard they try.

Discovery Harbour and the marine parks are all in British Columbia, Canada. US rules don't apply.

 

[HopCar]

There once was a lady from Nantucket
Kept grey water in a bucket
The bucket got filled
Then it got spilled
The lady from Nantucket said f*** it

 

[Rebel112r]

Hop, my sentiments exactly..

 

[BruceK]

What about water from engine exhausts?

Comes out mixed with pollutants from combustion,and at times unburned fuel and oil. That`s got to be the next target for the grey water banning crowd. Maybe an onboard filtration plant would solve it.

Keel cooling you say? What about air pollution from the exhaust stack,that`s going to need filtering and particle collection.

 

[HeadMistress]

There are more bacteria and material that creates the envirozealots favorite target--BOD (bio-oxygen demand)--in the bird poop you hose off the deck than there are in gray water. The only real problem in a marina or anchorage would be a garbage disposer or a clothes or dish washer...and--without doing more research I want to do right now, I THINK there may be a longstanding rule about discharging those in coastal waters....


--Peggie

 

[HopCar]

What about water from engine exhausts?

Comes out mixed with pollutants from combustion,and at times unburned fuel and oil. That`s got to be the next target for the grey water banning crowd. Maybe an onboard filtration plant would solve it.

Keel cooling you say? What about air pollution from the exhaust stack,that`s going to need filtering and particle collection.

Bruce, shut up. You’ll give them ideas.

 

[HeadMistress]

Nah...their whole focus is on BOD...they're convinced that boats cause algae blooms.

 

[porman]

Peggie!!!! Now they're not going to let us wash the bird poop off the deck!

 

[hollywood8118]

Just another example of the govt. saving us from ourselves...


Undoubtedly there is absolutely no science to support the regulations on grey water.


I for one will keep showering and smile when the shower sump pump kicks on and dumps the evil water overboard.


HOLLYWOOD

 

[klee wyck]

This ‘no grey water discharge ‘ must be and must have been the case in Europe for some time. When I brought Libra home from Europe she had only one 250 gallon holding tank with mixture of black and grey water. No way to discharge grey water anywhere except thru the pump out.
Klee Wyck was built over there a couple of years before Libra and has sumps that discharge showers and sinks directly overboard with no holding.

You learn to pay attention and get used to it.

 

[BruceK]

.. Now they're not going to let us wash the bird poop off the deck!

Bird poop should be carefully collected, aged, and used to fertilize the organic vegetables and herbs we should all be growing onboard. (Actually, I know people who grow herbs onboard,but if they use bird poop as fertilizer, it`s processed chicken stuff.

 

[HeadMistress]

When I brought Libra home from Europe she had only one 250 gallon holding tank with mixture of black and grey water.

USCG regs make it illegal in the US to combine black and gray water in the same tank. A reg that's often ignored, however.

--Peggie

 

[HeadMistress]

Peggie!!!! Now they're not going to let us wash the bird poop off the deck!

There's always a good heavy rain. At least till they figure out how to ban using it wash boats.


-Peggie

 

[Wxx3]

This ‘no grey water discharge ‘ must be and must have been the case in Europe for some time. When I brought Libra home from Europe she had only one 250 gallon holding tank with mixture of black and grey water. No way to discharge grey water anywhere except thru the pump out.
Klee Wyck was built over there a couple of years before Libra and has sumps that discharge showers and sinks directly overboard with no holding.

You learn to pay attention and get used to it.

Why the E.U. is well loved worldwide.
They decided to add Grey water, but don't make anyone retrofit black water tanks.

In 4500 nm of cruising in Europe, I saw one pump out.

When governments make unreasonable regulations, then more people ignore them.

Some of you may remember Nixon's 55 mph speed limit. I was living in Denver at the time. Speed limit on the interstate thru the city was 55, and 70 outside.
Before the 55, traffic would noticeably slow up going thru Denver. After 55 was imposed for the entire state and country, no one slowed anymore and just cruised thru at 70, which is the speed they'd been doing outside city limits.

 

[sdowney717]

Plumb the gray and black water into the raw water pickup, and blast it out the exhaust back of the boat.

I had the boat at a proudly green marina couple of years. They also had installed a collector for when you haul to hold the runoff from power washing the hull. And upcharged their fees to you because it was 'good for the environment'. I wonder what they did with all of that stuff, probably went to a landfill. They also did not like you washing your boat in the slip. Maybe the soap is toxic they thought. And absolutely no filling the boat from a fuel can in your slip, claimed you would spill it in the water.

 

[ktdtx]

They also said they don't have a way of pumping out grey water even if you have a holding tank for it.

Irritating when our "Leaders" impose rules and regulations and then don't any way to comply with them.provide

 

[HeadMistress]

Plumb the gray and black water into the raw water pickup, and blast it out the exhaust back of the boat.

A good way to destroy an exhaust system, if not an engine! But it's not exactly a new idea.


There have been at least two attempts to market a system to use engine exhaust to incinerate toilet waste. The first was in the RV market in late '70s. It didn't last long 'cuz not only did the animal fats in sewage and the grease and oils in gray water destroy catalytic converters and clog up exhaust pipes, the exhaust STANK...making life miserable for vehicles who had to follow an RV up a hill.

There were two attempts in the marine market..the first was in the late '80s. A couple of Spaniards who quickly discovered (but not until after they'd spent buckets of money producing the systems and advertising em) that it only works in dry exhausts--but clogged 'em up and had the same odor issues RVs had....and besides, in the recreational boat market, at least 90% of boats have wet exhausts, which don't get hot enough to incinerate the waste. So it didn't last long.

A second system was tried in the '90s...even won some kind of "innovation" award. I bookmarked their site, but it seems to have disappeared...and a google search didn't turn up it or anything else either.

So I'm pretty sure that disposing of black and gray water via engine exhaust is an idea whose time hasn't come yet and prob'ly never will. But that won't stop someone else from trying it.

--Peggie

 

[dhays]

When I brought Libra home from Europe she had only one 250 gallon holding tank with mixture of black and grey water.

USCG regs make it illegal in the US to combine black and gray water in the same tank. A reg that's often ignored, however.

--Peggie

I didn’t know that. And here I was thinking that if this grey water ban continues I may need to plumb the sinks and showers into the holding tank... Oh well.

 

[trmungle]

Head Mistress

Just downloaded Peggy's book on Kindle. Tons of info. Excellent read

 

[sdowney717]

Plumb the gray and black water into the raw water pickup, and blast it out the exhaust back of the boat.

A good way to destroy an exhaust system, if not an engine! But it's not exactly a new idea.


There have been at least two attempts to market a system to use engine exhaust to incinerate toilet waste. The first was in the RV market in late '70s. It didn't last long 'cuz not only did the animal fats in sewage and the grease and oils in gray water destroy catalytic converters and clog up exhaust pipes, the exhaust STANK...making life miserable for vehicles who had to follow an RV up a hill.

There were two attempts in the marine market..the first was in the late '80s. A couple of Spaniards who quickly discovered (but not until after they'd spent buckets of money producing the systems and advertising em) that it only works in dry exhausts--but clogged 'em up and had the same odor issues RVs had....and besides, in the recreational boat market, at least 90% of boats have wet exhausts, which don't get hot enough to incinerate the waste. So it didn't last long.

A second system was tried in the '90s...even won some kind of "innovation" award. I bookmarked their site, but it seems to have disappeared...and a google search didn't turn up it or anything else either.

So I'm pretty sure that disposing of black and gray water via engine exhaust is an idea whose time hasn't come yet and prob'ly never will. But that won't stop someone else from trying it.

--Peggie

I was not exactly serious.

You could simply slowly inject it into the exhaust downstream of the engine using a small pump as the engine runs to get rid of grey water. Glad I boat in an area where I can pump directly overboard using my Lectrasan, which still works fine, old as it is. I have rebuilt it once since owning the boat. Collecting gray water is as dumb as it gets.

Those promoting all these things do not want you on the water with a hydrocarbon engine either. Such an engine does pollute the water with noxious engine exhaust and they want to stop all of it at really any cost. The furor over copper bottom paint is another example of extremism on their part. They have already ruined the durable oil paints market. And water paints don't flow out very well anymore cause they ruined it by mandating a tiny VOC content. They are about to do away with R134a refrigerant in favor of a new hugely expensive refrigerant R1234yf that if it gets hot can kill people in the car..