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How many boats does it take
My point in the original post was that the government allows large
sewage discharges into our waterways with apparently little or no long term impact in many areas. The posts here and in previous threads verify that it is not just an isolated example. Most boats stay on trailers or at the peer most of the time. I do not believe there are that many pleasure boats cruising around the east coast, yet they seem to have zeroed in on pleasure craft as a major contributor. Writing to my congress men didn't seem to have any impact. How did this happen to us and how can we get out of it? Ron heres the irony: we are supposed to dump our holding tanks into marina holding tanks ,which in turn dump their holding tanks into the municipal sewage treatment facility, which in turn dumps it back in the creek |
How many boaters does it take to change this
Vito,
I think that we hear sewage is the problem so we believe it. I don't disagree that specific areas like the Florida Keys have a problem but I don't believe the general no discharge rule for boats is based in science. I dive with several of the Virginia environmental agents. These guys are well educated and very experienced. They say that the big problem is the polluted runoff from our roadways and parking lots (gas, oil, transmission and brake fluid, etc.). Second is the nutrient runoff from thousands of miles of river front farms and the lawns of homes from fertilizer. All of this goes into our waterways either directly or thru storm drains. There opinions come from long term real studies not just hearsay. They don't say it point blank, but they insinuate that sewage is very manageable by comparison. I would expect that it is probably the same in the rest of the country. This leaves me to conclude that the regulators either never get the true scientific picture or are ignoring it, most probably for political reasons. I for one am tired of having to look hard to find pump out stations. Remember how they told us there was going to be a one at almost every marina. About the only time I go offshore is to dive, not frequent enough to keep my holding tank empty. Boaters believed these hollow promises and allowed this to happen. I don't know of any boating organization who lobbies long and hard against this which is a shame because collectively we are a large voting block. So Back to the question. What can we do about this? |
How many boats does it take - OT solution.
"Vito" wrote in message ... RaBi wrote: You should have a look at the facts. The birthrate is just OK and US growth rate is just 0.9% That don't compute. The LA basin was largely empty 50 years ago. All those seperate towns were really seperate. A) The LA basin isn't representative of the country as a whole, and B) Nobody said there was no population growth going on 50 years ago -- 50 years ago the country was in the middle of the post WWII baby boom. Mark |
How many boaters does it take to change this
"Ron Thornton" wrote in message news:21565-3F3A57AE- I dive with several of the Virginia environmental agents. These guys are well educated and very experienced. They say that the big problem is the polluted runoff from our roadways and parking lots (gas, oil, transmission and brake fluid, etc.). Second is the nutrient runoff from thousands of miles of river front farms and the lawns of homes from fertilizer. All of this goes into our waterways either directly or thru storm drains. There opinions come from long term real studies not just hearsay. They don't say it point blank, but they insinuate that sewage is very manageable by comparison. That's true--chemical and fertilizer runoff is a bigger problem. Sewage is more a problem for human health (in using beaches and eating shellfish) than a problem that damages the environment (except that combined sewer overflows also contain a lot lawn and parking lot runoff). But the fact that these are bigger (and different) problems doesn't mean that we shouldn't do anything about sewage. Mark |
How many boats does it take - OT solution.
Mark Weaver wrote:
Sigh--it has nothing really to do with more people. It has to do with outdated sewer systems .... There is a need to upgrade sewer systems but that is treating just one symptom of the primary problem which is "too many people". We can put a band aid on acid rain with scrubbers to, etc etc. but none of these "solutions" address the real source of the trouble. Those old sewers were adequate just 50 years ago. They leaked raw sewage then too, but the amounts were small enough for the streams and lakes to recover. That's no longer true because we have so many people making too much sewage for both the "antiquated" plants and for the rivers they dump into. As a teen we used to dive in a beautiful kelp forest. It's an underwater desert now, thanks to LA sewage. We used to chase jackrabbite across the Mojave too. Damage was inconsequental because there were so few of us. Now it'd be criminal to do the same - not for 2 or 3 bikes but for 20 or 30,000! There's just as much desert but now there's too many people to permit riding in it. There's just as much air and water too but .... )c: |
How many boats does it take
On Wed, 13 Aug 2003 06:34:35 -0500, "Keith"
wrote: What the heck is a "moon eye"? A flat little silver fish with big eyes that die by the billions after breeding and wash up on Lake Ontario beaches by the millions, making "going to the beach" sort of like "going to the dumpster at the boat ramp after the fishermen have been there". PU! Not sure what their real name is.... Larry Extremely intelligent life must exist in the universe. You can tell because they never tried to contact us. |
How many boats does it take
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How many boaters does it take to change this
Mark,
I'm not suggesting we do nothing about sewage, just get the focus off us and onto the real problems. I believe boaters are regulated on this issue because we are an easy target and not because we have a big impact on the environment. Ron Still in the Lazyboy. |
How many boats does it take - OT solution.
"Vito" wrote in message ... Mark Weaver wrote: A) The LA basin isn't representative of the country as a whole, and Agreed, but Fredricksburg, Va is now as crowded as Alexandria was just 20 years ago and the farms between Rockville and Fredrick Md have been buried under houses and apartments, and .... Maybe that is not caused by growth in terms of people but in terms of comfort level? I guess many people now live in larger houses and nobody wants to live in small flats anymore? Malls get bigger and bigger, airports continue to grow, ... If you don't want kids who the heck should pay your pension? If a country's people start aging you will run into problems as only few young people work and many older people need help / medical care. |
How many boats does it take - OT solution.
Mark Weaver wrote:
A) The LA basin isn't representative of the country as a whole, and Agreed, but Fredricksburg, Va is now as crowded as Alexandria was just 20 years ago and the farms between Rockville and Fredrick Md have been buried under houses and apartments, and .... B) Nobody said there was no population growth going on 50 years ago -- 50 years ago the country was in the middle of the post WWII baby boom. Thank you. I hear there's another boom starting. |
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