Bob wrote:
wrote:
You're describing practices, (such as sandblasting into the bay), that
have been out of practice for a long time. If your mom is 85, you're
probably retired by now.
Not quite but in another 10 maybe........... Good indutive reasoning
and math skills!
Get out to a local boatyard and see how times
have changed since you last dumped everything into the water and
figured that was probably "good enough."
I agree, at least in most states. I'm in Oregon... land of public
beaches, bottle deposits, land use laws, and medical pot, and assisted
suicide. In the last five years here I walked through most yards in the
state and have hauled out in three. Two conclusions:
1) Regardless of the laws and regs they'll have zero effect unless
stricly enforced by dillilgent officers. The most common RepubliKan
Right to Dump stratigy is to alow laws, put a political stooge in to
run the place, and then cut the enforcment buget (officers) so nothing
happens. So no body stops in to see what going on at the yards.
2) At $7.50/hr (maybe $5.00/hr else places) a yard guy will do what is
easiest. Which means just dump whatever and wherever when nobody is
looking. That I have seen on several occcasions. Now if wages were 15
or 20 bucks an hour the guys might have something to lose. As is, just
another minium wage job.
I still stand by my opinion that ship yards, ship breaking stations,
and yacht yards are very dirty places................ still.
Bob
Some practices at our regional boatyards that certainly debunk any
"dirty industry" myth.
1) All pressure washing of bottoms must be done in a narrowly defined
area, and all of the
wash water is collected in a designated drain. That drain does *not*
lead to the public sewer system or (even worse) back into the waterway.
Instead, the wash is collected, settled, and filtered until it meets
EPA requirements for discharge. The solids and chemicals removed from
the wash water are hauled to an approved hazardous waste site.
2) The work area below a boat in the yard is normally supposed to be
tarped while work is in progress. Should some paint, bottom paint,
varnish, or other material drip during application, the material is
intercepted by the tarp and does not find its way back into the
adjoining water via stormwater runoff.
3) Best management practices, (BMP's) of most of our regional yards now
prohibit non-vaccuum sanding and many are beginning to prohibit the use
of a grinder of any sort.
There aren't any "yachties" insisting on a "right to dump," but when
faced with an enforcement system that claims the public drinking water
supply is too impure to flow into
a waterway there will be almost no boatyards able to meet the absurdly
high expectations of the environmentalists.