The devil is in the details. Thinking about it for another few minutes
last night, I realized that I don't want to subject all these plastic
hoses, joint, and screwed fittings that I'm trying to keep absolutely
odor tight to pressure. If it was a steel tank with hard piping,
maybe. Even then, I would want a pressure relieve valve and those are
very low pressures to have one work reliably.

A wad of toilet paper going up into the (too small) vent on our
plastic tank could also turn this into a bomb that you don't even want
to think about.

Slightly off the subject:

I remember a shipyard here in Maine needing to fill the built in tank
in a
just completed fishing dragger with water to test it. The water at
the
dock was off so they ran a long hose down the hill from the shop and
connected it to the tank. They were smart enough not to hook it up to
city
water pressure and ran the water into a funnel. They weren't smart
enough
not to hard mount the hose to the tank and the vent hadn't been
installed
yet. The weight of water in the hose, with a vertical drop of about
25
feet, bowed the top of the tank up about 3 inches. Since this was
also the
floor of the crew's quarters, all the accommodations had to be ripped
out
and a huge section of the boat cut out and rewelded. It cost about
$100,000
to fix.

--

Roger Long

Somebody should stuff Terry K down a storm sewer...
That's just plain ignorant. But with a "plastic ball valve" for a
seacock, it's just a matter of time till his boat sinks, and then it
will be fuel and oil that he'll be fouling the waterways with, not just
sewage...sheesh! A marelon valve is ok as a seacock, but judging by his
statements, I suspect Terry is more of a PVC from Home Depot kind of
guy...
And if you skip the vented loop with your system below the water
line, You stand a good chance of sinking your boat as well, Roger. Do
yourself a favor and check out this link to see how a system should be
constructed, instead of over/under engineering it in your head. This
tutorial will answer all your questions, and it has drawings of all
common configurations....
http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs...tionsystem.htm

....And if you see some dipstick dumping his boat OR RV in a sewer,
call 911 and turn the idiot in..

markvictor wrote:
...And if you see some dipstick dumping his boat OR RV in a sewer,
call 911 and turn the idiot in..

Actually, unless he's sticking a hose down a storm drain--and maybe not
even then, other than aesthetics (which have never seemed to concern
Larry)--there's nothing wrong with it. In fact, it's a lot more
environmentally friendly than dumping a tank at sea. Everything on land
including bird poop ends up in the sewer...and everything in a
sewer--including the contents of all the holding tanks that are pumped
out--ends up in a sewage treatment plant.

I know quite a few people who have trailer boats who've installed
connections to their sewer lines at home so they can dump their tanks.


--
Peggie
----------
Peggie Hall
Specializing in marine sanitation since 1987
Author "Get Rid of Boat Odors - A Guide To Marine Sanitation Systems and
Other Sources of Aggravation and Odor"
http://shop.sailboatowners.com/books...ku=90&cat=1304

Terry K wrote:
My waste tank is purged to the sea or, with an external hose connected,
to the Wall Mart plaza storm sewer like RVers do it

Peggie Hall wrote:

Actually, unless he's sticking a hose down a storm drain--and maybe not
even then, other than aesthetics (which have never seemed to concern
Larry)--there's nothing wrong with it. In fact, it's a lot more
environmentally friendly than dumping a tank at sea. Everything on land
including bird poop ends up in the sewer...and everything in a
sewer--including the contents of all the holding tanks that are pumped
out--ends up in a sewage treatment plant.

You may be a marine sanitation "specialist", but your knowledge of
waste and run-off is blatantly lacking...There IS something wrong with
it...(unless you feel there is nothing wrong with committing a
misdemeanor), bird poop,and Larry"s Wal- Mart deposits, and, as you put
it, "everything on land" does not end up in the sewer, I don't know
what part of Idaho you're from, but in California, the vast majority of
runoff goes to storm drains, barrancas,flood control channels,streams
and rivers, and discharges directly to the harbors and ocean...
nearshore or onshore, about 3 miles shy of the 3 mile limit..Our
beaches are routinely closed by the Health dept. due to elevated levels
of fecal coliform bacteria; bad enough from the"bird poop".. the last
thing we need (or will tolerate) is morons dumping waste in the storm
drains. How you could possibly think that dumping sewage to a storm
drain is more environmentally friendly than at least taking it 3 miles
away from where people live, work, swim, surf, etc. is beyond logic.
Perhaps you've got stock in a gammaglobulin manufacturer...I'm sorry
Peggy, you may be adept at odor control, but your knowledge of
sanitation stinks....
So, I guess it's OK to pee in YOUR pool...

She was saying it would be OK to dump it in a sewer, NOT a storm drain.
Go back and actually read the posts, Mark.

The situation does vary geographically, even locally.

Here in Maine, we have a lot of combined sewer and storm drains.
There are sills so that everything goes to the sewer plant until there
is a heavy rain. Then, the flow overtops the sills and goes into the
bay. We also have a lot of direct storm drains that are slowly being
phased out. The "Friends of Casco Bay" had a program to go around and
stencil little lobster emblems with the note "Drains directly to the
bay" on them so people would know not to dump especially noxious stuff
down them.

One of the local sewer districts wanted to know how often the sills
were overflowing and sending everything into the bay so they did
something simple and clever. The went in and just set blocks of wood
on top of the sills. If they looked after a rain, they would have the
answer.

Back when on was on the board of FOCB, they told me how much oil goes
into the bay daily just from street runoff. I calculated the volume
thinking that a visual display of a mock up black painted box would be
great public education. This is a small city and most of the bay is
rural and suburban. We never did the box thing because we couldn't
figure out how to transport it. I've forgotten exactly how big it was
but I think it was over 10 feet square. That works out to being a
significant oil spill 365 days a year. It's just so distributed that
the effects are invisible.

Up here in Maine, it would not be a good idea to sump your holding
tank anywhere not marked specifically for human waste.

--

Roger Long



"Keith" wrote in message
oups.com...
She was saying it would be OK to dump it in a sewer, NOT a storm
drain.
Go back and actually read the posts, Mark.

Keith wrote:
She was saying it would be OK to dump it in a sewer, NOT a storm drain.
Go back and actually read the posts, Mark.
Peggie Hall wrote:
Actually, unless he's sticking a hose down a storm drain--and maybe not
even then, other than aesthetics (which have never seemed to concern
Larry)--there's nothing wrong with it. In fact, it's a lot more
environmentally friendly than dumping a tank at sea.

What part of "maybe not even then" and "there's nothing wrong with it"
do you fail to comprehend? If YOU would actually read the posts, you
would see that what was said was that there may not be anything wrong
with dumping in a storm drain, because "bird poop" and "everything else
on land" ends up in the sewer and sewage is treated. That just isn't
so... Animal waste is enough to cause beach closings, we don't need
human waste and the diseases it can carry added to the runoff. It's not
that hard to do the right thing...

markvictor wrote:
Actually, unless he's sticking a hose down a storm drain--and maybe not
even then, other than aesthetics (which have never seemed to concern
Larry)--there's nothing wrong with it. In fact, it's a lot more
environmentally friendly than dumping a tank at sea.


What part of "maybe not even then" and "there's nothing wrong with it"
do you fail to comprehend?

What part of "maybe" didn't you understand, Mark? If it ends up in the
sewer--granted, not all storm drains are connected to sewer
pipes...hence my use of the word "maybe"--there's nothing
environmentally wrong with it.

If YOU would actually read the posts, you
would see that what was said was that there may not be anything wrong
with dumping in a storm drain...

Right...I did say "MAY NOT"...


, because "bird poop" and "everything else
on land" ends up in the sewer and sewage is treated. That just isn't
so...

In YOUR area...but not in all. But even storm drains that do empty
directly into the ocean instead of a sewer line do so through pipes that
terminate at least 3 miles offshore (that wasn't always true, but is in
MOST places now), which is also the minimum distance from shore to
legally dump a tank at sea. So how is dumping a tank down a storm drain
that terminates 3 miles offshore any worse for the environment than
dumping it at sea barely 3 miles offshore?

Yours is just one more example of a "knee jerk" emotional reaction
without any rational reasoning behind it.

--
Peggie
----------
Peggie Hall
Specializing in marine sanitation since 1987
Author "Get Rid of Boat Odors - A Guide To Marine Sanitation Systems and
Other Sources of Aggravation and Odor"
http://shop.sailboatowners.com/books...ku=90&cat=1304

Terry K wrote:
My waste tank is purged to the sea or, with an external hose connected,
to the Wall Mart plaza storm sewer like RVers do it

Peggie Hall wrote:
Actually, unless he's sticking a hose down a storm drain--and maybe not
even then, other than aesthetics (which have never seemed to concern
Larry)--there's nothing wrong with it. In fact, it's a lot more
environmentally friendly than dumping a tank at sea. Everything on land
including bird poop ends up in the sewer...and everything in a
sewer--including the contents of all the holding tanks that are pumped
out--ends up in a sewage treatment plant.

You may be a marine sanitation "specialist", but your knowledge of
waste and run-off is blatantly lacking...There IS something wrong with
it...(unless you feel there is nothing wrong with committing a
misdemeanor), bird poop,and Terry"s Wal- Mart deposits, and, as you put
it, "everything on land" does not end up in the sewer, I don't know
what part of Idaho you're from, but in California, the vast majority of
runoff goes to storm drains, barrancas,flood control channels,streams
and rivers, and discharges directly to the harbors and ocean...
nearshore or onshore, about 3 miles shy of the 3 mile limit..Our
beaches are routinely closed by the Health dept. due to elevated levels
of fecal coliform bacteria; bad enough from the"bird poop".. the last
thing we need (or will tolerate) is morons dumping waste in the storm
drains. How you could possibly think that dumping sewage to a storm
drain is more environmentally friendly than at least taking it 3 miles
away from where people live, work, swim, surf, etc. is beyond logic.
Perhaps you've got stock in a gammaglobulin manufacturer...I'm sorry
Peggy, you may be adept at odor control, but your knowledge of
sanitation stinks....
So, I guess it's OK to pee in YOUR pool...

It may not be such a bad idea (I'm not taking Terry seriously about the
storm sewer), IMHO.
I came up with the same idea because of head system odors that I was
convinced came through the thin diaphragm of the manual pump installed for
pumping out the tank. I was going to use my dinghy pump. But I ended up
relocating the manual pump to a cockpit locker and that was the end of the
odors...in the cabin.
I appreciate thinking outside the box.

"markvictor" wrote in message
ups.com...
Somebody should stuff Terry K down a storm sewer...
That's just plain ignorant. But with a "plastic ball valve" for a
seacock, it's just a matter of time till his boat sinks, and then it
will be fuel and oil that he'll be fouling the waterways with, not just
sewage...sheesh! A marelon valve is ok as a seacock, but judging by his
statements, I suspect Terry is more of a PVC from Home Depot kind of
guy...
And if you skip the vented loop with your system below the water
line, You stand a good chance of sinking your boat as well, Roger. Do
yourself a favor and check out this link to see how a system should be
constructed, instead of over/under engineering it in your head. This
tutorial will answer all your questions, and it has drawings of all
common configurations....
http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs...tionsystem.htm

...And if you see some dipstick dumping his boat OR RV in a sewer,
call 911 and turn the idiot in..