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Comment by Terri on May 7, 2010 at 3:52pm

Please note that this is a change from existing NC law and entails a new responsibility for cruisers.

Subject: Pumpout Log
I learned last night that the NC Legislature has passed a bill requiring recreational vessel owners to keep a log of pumpouts starting on July 1, 2010.
Per NC House Bill 1378: “Vessel owner and operator required to keep log of pumpout dates. (a) Any owner or operator of a vessel that has a marine sanitation device shall maintain a record of the date of each pumpout of the marine sanitation device and the location of the pumpout facility. Each record shall be maintained for a period of one year from the date of the pumpout.” Also, “Section 1 of this act becomes effective July 1, 2010. Fines up to $10,000 may be assessed, and the regulation will be enforced by NC Wildlife officers, USCG and any other law officers with jurisdiction.”
Captain Wade Ehlen

Here’s a follow-up message from Captains Bob McLeran and Judy Young (Judy must be a long-lost cousin). As you will see, looks like portions of the NC coastline are about to become no-discharge zones.

Some areas of North Carolina will be “no discharge” zones commencing July 1st, and requiring all vessels to keep a log of pump outs and requires the owner to secure any overboard discharge valve.
Here’s a link to the bill:

http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/Sessions/2009/Bills/House/PDF/H1378v6.pdf

Beyond the legal issues of notice (there are aspects of the bill defining “no discharge” areas that are totally confused and confusing) the one thing that caught my eye is the reference to 33 CFR in this phrase:
—–
The owner or operator of a vessel with a marine sanitation device shall keep the overboard waste discharge valves of the device secure by acceptable methods set forth under 33 C.F.R. ‘ 159.7(b) so as to prevent the discharge of treated or untreated sewage, except when lawfully
discharging sewage at a pumpout facility.
—–
33 CFR 159.7(b) states “(3) Using a non-releasable wire-tie to hold the seacock in the closed position . . . .” It doesn’t further define “wire-tie.”
Question for those who know: Does “wire-tie” as used in 33 CFR 159.7(b) include non-releasable plastic (wire) ties?
This question comes up every time we get a USCGA courtesy inspection or have the potty-patrol aboard for a get-gether.
Bob McLeran and Judy Young

Responses from the cruising community on this issue posted below. As you will see, many cruisers have questions. If anyone has answers, PLEASE chime in by clicking the “Comment on This Posting/Marina/Anchorage/Bridge” link below, and share your information.

What about boats transiting N.C.?
Captain Joan Clark

Don’t you just love it! We have to keep the head discharge valves locked, maintain a Log of pump outs and face a Ten Thousand Dollar Fine if caught in violation of the law. I know if I pump my daily poop over the side I am going to destroy the inshore waters of my favorite cruising places….one dump at a time. I sit on my friends boat at Lake Norman at the NC Hwy 150 Bridge….and watch the Gusher of fecal matter being pumped into the lake by the County at a rate of Tens of Thousands of Gallons a day….and that is not harmful to the water quality of the Lake. My what a criminal I feel like when I merely piddle over the side of the boat now and then!
Captain Ralph Chappell

Submitted on 2010/05/06 at 5:43pm
I am all for this law. but it needs to be writen by someone who knows what they are doing. This group of law makers never had a boat otherwise they would not write a a law that doesn’t make sense. open your seacock to pump out your tank above ground into the proper facility????????
Captain Cliff Kisby

I appreciate the notice and the free pumpout log. Do you have any idea where the no-discharge zones will be in NC ?? Also, please let us know as soon as you are made aware, if plastic ties will be okay to use…. Thanks,
Captain Randy Umstead

A nylon (plastic?) wire tie has come into general use as more than a wire tie, but in spite of being used as handcuffs, and ankle restraints, it is commonly referred as just a “wire tie”. Wire ties are not ties made of wire. Think about it; would you want to bundle up your wires with a “wire” device that could short out the whole kit and kaboodle? Thus the plastic, or nylon, “wire” ties.
Captain Dick Giddings

As I read the CG regs you can close your valve and remove the handle Idid this as my handle had no way to.put a tie on and secure.Any thoights
Captain Ed Helms, SV Johnnie Cake

The way I read this, it will initially only apply to New Hanover County (Wilmington, Wrighstville Beach, etc.), but I can see other jurisdictions jumping on the bandwagon, hopefully with proper notice. No mention is made of Type I (Lectra-San) devices. They are OK by USCG standards. Is the state pre-empting those? At any rate I would keep a log, especially if I am passing through the Wrightsville Beach area.
Capt. Richard Beesley

One more loss of freedom. Now the government will check our sewerage pump out while they do nothing to assure that the freighters, passenger ships, commercial boats don’t put poop in the water or bring in any nasty crap on their hulls.
When are we going to demand an end to this stupid ecological micromanagement and deal with the serious pollution that is pouring from city street runoffs to industrial dumping?
This should not be accepted by the citizens of this free society.
Captain G.F.Weld

We are usually in the ocean 5-7 miles out. When we discharge that far out do we need to make note of our location and put it in the log so that when we come in to NC we will be safe from fines?
Captain Pat Washer

So far from what I have read is that a vessel owner must maintain a log but does not have to retain any receipts from the pumpout locations other than to write down the costs of the pumpouts. There is no mention as to whether the pumpout facility must maintain a log that coincides with the vessels it has pumped out. If this is the case then all that is needed to comply with the law is to just make up dates and locations and write them in the log which will make the water cops happy when they look at your log. This sounds just like another stupid law enacted by the idiots who were elected by the sheep of this nation. The only way to stop all of this nonsense is to not vote for any incumbent at election time regardless of their party.
Captain John Adams

How do they gauge when you require a pump. Example….Last pump out was just before I entered NC Waters and just as i am leaving NC waters they stop me, i show them my log and they question me why i show no pump outs in NC…..Now what????
Captain Raymond W. Smith aboard “Fire Dog IV”

I know this is probably a silly question, but given the sometimes nitpicking ways of inspectors, I have to ask. What about porta potties? Most marinas just tell us to empty it into their toilet facility. Must we keep a log also, or is the law specific to those with built in heads and holding tanks?
Joe Babb

FYI, straight from the CFR.
Y valve lockouts
(b) When operating a vessel on a body of water where the discharge of treated or untreated sewage is prohibited by the Environmental Protection Agency under 40 CFR 140.3 or 140.4, the operator must secure each Type I or Type II device in a manner which prevents discharge of treated or untreated sewage. Acceptable methods of securing the device include–
(1) Closing the seacock and removing the handle;
(2) Padlocking the seacock in the closed position;
(3) Using a non-releasable wire-tie to hold the seacock in the closed position; or
(4) Locking the door to the space enclosing the toilets with a padlock or door handle key lock.
(c) When operating a vessel on a body of water where the discharge of untreated sewage is prohibited by the Environmental Protection Agency under 40 CFR 140.3, the operator must secure each Type III device in a manner which prevents discharge of sewage. Acceptable methods of securing the device include–
(1) Closing each valve leading to an overboard discharge and removing the handle;
(2) Padlocking each valve leading to an overboard discharge in the closed position; or
(3) Using a non-releasable wire-tie to hold each valve leading to an overboard discharge in the closed position.
[CGH 95-028, 62 FR 51194, Sept. 30, 1997]
Keith

In answer to the question, “What about boats transiting NC?”, frankly, any “large vessel” in the coastal waters of NC is subject to this law. I think it would be prudent to have a log after July 1, this year, and if you happened to come from Mantanilla Shoals to Beaufort, enter in the log that you closed the “Y”-valve while still offshore, and record the date and time. So far, there is no requirement to keep receipts from pump-out stations, but they will think of that!
Dick

Does this law apply to a portable toilet holding tank that could be dumped at home or in the ocean?
Mike Williams

Unfortunately, in the eyes of this law, the Lectra-San is treated as any other “sanitation device”. The tree huggers who wrote this law don’t know there is a safe way to treat sewage before we discharge it. We need to get Peggy Hall working on this.
Dick

FWIW, the NC statute doesn’t require a separate pump-out log for boats, only that pump-outs be logged. We do that anyway as a matter of course in the log – just like filling the water tanks or getting fuel. Not a big deal for a trawler-crawler.
As far as I can see, of more concern for us is trying to figure out what areas are state “no discharge zones” because an application to the EPA is pending. How are we going to know? What if the EPA disapproves the application? I think this whole situation in NC is ripe for a lot of trouble and litigation over the next couple of years.
Bob McLeran and Judy Young

Claiborne
I may be wrong, but according to my reading of the statute, the pump-out log requirement only applies to boats located in waters designated as a no-discharge zone, not to boats elsewhere in NC.
“77-131. Application of Article.
The provisions of this Article apply only to the following:”
(1) pertains to marinas
(2) A vessel in coastal waters that are either designated as a no discharge zone or are included in a petition to the Environmental Protection Agency to be designated as a no discharge zone unless the
petition has been denied by the Environmental Protection Agency.”
Al Rossiter Jr.
Washington, NC

So we’re cruising the ICW through NC; the last time we pumped out was somewhere in South Carolina but didn’t note it in the log. A little further up the “road” we cross into a NC NDZ and get stopped by
the water cops and they ask to see our log. There’s no pump-out event noted in the log. Are we in violation of the statute because we’re currently in a NC NDZ and haven’t logged any pump out?
If we keep our boat (more or less permanently) in an area of NC that is NOT a NDZ, then enter a NDZ, are we in violation of the law because we didn’t log the pump outs we had back in the “free” area?
The point being, how is this going to be applied to boats transiting a NDZ when on the face of the statute it applies only to boats in a NDZ?
Bob McLeran and Judy Young

Comment by zeehag on May 7, 2010 at 7:48am

was NEWS 50 YRS AGO-- she wrote a book!!

Comment by LOLA on May 7, 2010 at 7:26am

Young girl found Adrift at sea...Murder on Sailboat

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/36964672/ns/today-today_books/

Comment by zeehag on May 4, 2010 at 2:01pm

smells bad at about cat and ship island between these and the mainland---saw nothing. when we got past the rigolets we saw some boats going out with porta potties onboard----and for a change we saw some uscg boats inside--dont usually see them in there.....

Comment by zeehag on May 2, 2010 at 9:13pm

check this out--is interesting stuff....eyeball witness account....

http://www.mudinmyblood.net/forum/showthread.php?t=6104

Comment by zeehag on May 2, 2010 at 2:19pm

there is no oil so far inside the barrier islands of mississippi sound,. rigolets is scheduled for booming later in the week, not already done!! whew!!.....the end results of this disaster from hell are not to be known for many many weeks yet, as the remote capping mechanism wasnt installed with the construction of the rig--so 5000-250000 gallons vs barrels of oil still spew out of the stricken rig--and will continue unchanged essentially for 2-3 months....nothing like a bit of corruption and greed in constructing a rig for off shore drilling

Comment by Suky Cannon on May 2, 2010 at 11:33am

Ck out Jeff Master's Blog at weather underground for best reports on weather affecting oil spill. http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=...

Comment by LOLA on May 2, 2010 at 7:22am

NOW SAY OIL MAY GO AROUND FLA. AND UP THE EAST COAST OF ATLANTIC ALSO

http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/expert-surface-area-of-gulf-o...|main|dl1|link4|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aolnews.com%2Fnation%2Farticle%2Fexpert-surface-area-of-gulf-oil-spill-has-tripled%2F19461397

Comment by zeehag on May 2, 2010 at 1:44am

http://news.yahoo.com/video/us-15749625/frantic-effort-to-keep-oil-...

Comment by LOLA on February 12, 2010 at 4:49am

Just in Caribbean Islands to avoid
Use the arrow on the page
http://travel.aol.com/travel-ideas/galleries/caribbean-islands-to-a...|hp-laptop|dl4|link1|http%3A%2F%2Ftravel.aol.com%2Ftravel-ideas%2Fgalleries%2Fcaribbean-islands-to-avoid%3Fncid%3DAOLCOMMtravdynlprim0780

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