chuck h wrote:
A couple of off the wall (OTW) questions about boat sanitation systems.
These questions could be considered wierd I guess, but are serious none the
less.

Not so off the wall...although I have to admit it's the first time I've
heard the first one.


Regarding inside the three/twelve mile limit:

1. It's legal to urinate over the side of the boat afik.

Yep...and also defecate, if you can figure out how to hang your fanny
over side.

Would it also be
legal to urinate through a cabin window (port) which could be opened and
closed?

Yep...and prob'ly highly entertaining to watch, from inside the boat ANd
outside!


2. Would there be a problem with using a holding tank constructed sort of
like an outdoor toilet --- sliding gate valve in top of tank, sit down, open
the valve, defecate, close the valve?

If the waste remains in the tank till it's pumped out or taken off the
boat and dumped, you've just described how a portapotty works...so yes,
such a device would be legal. But if the idea is to also open a valve
in the tank to dispose of the waste in it overboard, it would not be
legal, because it would be "a device for installation onboard a vessel
and which is designed to receive, retain, treat, or discharge sewage..."
Only waste that has been treated by a CG Certified Type I or II MSD
(i.e Lectra/San) may legally be discharged overboard once it goes into
or even passes through any device aboard intended to receive sewage.

3. What about a toilet seat hung off the transom? Would it be legal to sit
on that and defecate directly into the water?

No...because, unlike a porthole, the toilet seat is an installed device
intended allow sewage ("human body waste and the waste from toilets and
other receptacles intended to receive or retain human body waste") to
pass through it. You could TRY to split semantic hairs with law
enforcement that there's no difference between a porthole and a toilet
seat, and that the toilet seat doesn't actually receive or retain any
waste, the waste is discharged below it...but you wouldn't win.

And btw, "bucket and chuck it" isn't legal either...even if the "bucket"
is just a mason jar or even a coffee cup. 'Cuz under federal law,
"Discharge includes, but is not limited to, ANY (emphasis mine)
spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, emitting, emptying, or dumping."

So as for the toilet seat, they'd argue that it leaks.

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://www.seaworthy.com/html/get_ri...oat_odors.html