Gotta give you cedit for tenacity if not accuracy.

You wrote:

"There are no coastal (or inland) waters in the whole US--east coast,
west coast, or Gulf--in which it's legal to discharge raw untreated
toilet waste directly overboard or dump a tank."


You're referring to the Alexander Archipelego...right? "More than 3
miles from the nearest land" is the key. Any time you're in ocean
waters, Federal law prohibits the discharge of raw untreated waste
WITHIN 3 miles of the nearest land. State boundary line has nothing to
with it...

Do you know what a "boundary line" is?

The waters in the donut holes are landward of the barrier islands
forming the west side of that part of the inside passage. They are not
in "ocean waters," except for the purposes of COLREGS. They are in the
sheltered coastal waters of Southeast Alaska.

The new law didn't grant any exemptions to smaller vessels, only put an
additional burden on the large ones.

The new law exempted small vessels carrying less than 50 overnight
passengers. It did not give them any more rights than they had to begin
with. The new law only removed the "right" of larger vessels to legally
dump raw sewage in certain areas of the inland and coastal waters of Alaska.

You would be in Puget sound, and if you sailed closer than 3 miles to
any land between Port Townsend and the Canadian border...from there to
the AK state line you're in Canadian coastal waters, subject to their
laws, not ours.

No dumping is allowed in Puget Sound or the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The
point I was trying to make is that a small boat can indeed travel from
just north of Seattle all the way to Glacier Bay via the inside passage
and legally dump raw sewage. That is directly and correctly in
opposition to your statement that "There are no coastal (or inland)
waters in the whole US--east coast, west coast, or Gulf--in which it's
legal to discharge raw untreated toilet waste directly overboard or dump
a tank."

If starting at the southern Canadian border bugs you then start at the
other Canadian border just north of Prince Rupert and go north from
there in US coastal waters and dump raw sewage in the donut holes.

It's VERY confusing, I know....

No, it's not confusing. It is part of the information a competent and
informed person requires to safely and legally operate a vessel in US
waters.

What confuses people is when false or misleading statements are posted
on the internet by people who do not know what they are talking about.
Call it nitpicking if you like but, just like your inspected vessel
statement, the devil is in the details when it comes to the regulatory
side of boating.

Rick