On Wed, 13 Jul 2005 02:48:53 GMT, Peggie Hall wrote:

Terry Spragg wrote:
Peggie, how do you rate dosing a regular holding tank with bleach as a
treatment prior to dumping?

Worthless. IN fact, worse than worthless, 'cuz bleach is highly
corrosive and damaging to hoses.

Do you have a recipie?

Nope. There is nothing that can be added to a tank that can make it
legal to dump the tank inside the "3 mile limit"...only the discharge
from a Type I or II MSD that has been tested and certified by the CG
that the discharge meets all the provisions of federal law for Type I
and II MSDs can legally go overboard (except in "no discharge" waters).
And the discharge from a CG certified device must go directly
overboard...it cannot go into a tank first. 'Cuz even if it's been
treated, once it does go into a tank, the waste is no longer considered
"treated" waste...for two reasons:

1. If even ONE li'l old bacterium survives treatment, it can quickly
multiply into zillions--way more than the legal count for treated
waste...and there's no way to test the discharge.

2. The discharge from Type I or II device must be macerated (liquified)
to a much higher level than it can be by just passing through a
discharge macerator.

Nor can an individual owner cobble up his own legal treatment
device...'cuz only the discharge from CG certified devices can legally
go overboard, and the CG won't certify "one offs"...only devices in
prototype that then must be mfr'd exactly as certified.

Not to mention getting caught with a setup to discharge a holding tank overboard
(i.e. not having the Y-valve padlocked in the correct position) inside the
3-mile limit can expose you to thousands of dollars in fines. Not worth the
risk in my opinion.

JJ

So sorry, Terry, but there are only two ways to empty a tank legally:
pump it out, or go out to sea at least 3 miles from the nearest point on
the whole US coastline to dump it. There is no "recipe" for anything you
can put in the tank to "treat" the waste.

James Johnson
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