Posted on 06/10/2008 8:12:54 PM PDT by atlana
Support S. 2766/H.R. 5949, the Clean Boating Act of 2008
Did you know that a recent court ruling about pollution being dumped from commercial ship ballast water will also require all recreational boats to get permits by September, 2008—despite the fact that 99% of recreational boats do not have ballast tanks?
Boats and ships are different, and shouldn’t be treated the same. These costly permits—intended for commercial ships and supertankers that have brought harmful invasive water species into U.S. waters—are being developed right now to tax your boat’s engine cooling water, bilge water, and even deck runoff. This will seriously impact boating participation unless Congress acts quickly.
It's not an exaggeration to say that it will take an act of Congress to fix this problem before boaters across the country will be required to wait in DMV-style lines for multiple, complex, costly permits.
Click here to watch Thom Dammrich, President of the National Marine Manufacturers Association, explain this issue in an interview with BoatTest.com's Jeff Hammond.
Legislative Relief: The Clean Boating Act of 2008
Fortunately, there is simple, commonsense legislation in Congress that would solve this problem for recreational boaters. Senators Barbara Boxer (D-California) and Bill Nelson (D-Florida) and Representatives Steve LaTourette (R-Ohio) and Candice Miller (R-Michigan) have introduced the “Clean Boating Act of 2008.” The Clean Boating Act permanently and fully restores the regulation that has existed for 35 years distinguishing between recreational boats and land-based industrial facilities and ocean-going commercial ships, cruise ships and supertankers.
(Excerpt) Read more at boatblue.org ...
We are doing (high school student club class program) an educational program that is growing like mad.
It does not have any govt affiliation or legislation.
It is simply spreading the word/education to us rec. boaters to clean our boats before going to another lake/bay ect...
Personal responsiblity.
The lad is referring to the educational programs put out by boaters and marine boards to PREVENT legislation restricting boat usage. The boat associations will use the existance of the educational programs to present their case to congress to not have the boats under the same rules as commercial vessels.
You could achieve a better result with precious metals...
It’s like getting a greeting card with a check inside. If you send the card alone it gets tossed without reading. If you just send a check they will be grateful but they won’t know what you want. You send the card and the check and then politics works.
Welcome fellow boater.
Here's a beaut I've been looking at---it, too, is a recreational boat, for sale privately for personal boating pleasure---a cool $48,000,000.00 sails it away to your own safe harbor.
Under way, port
At anchor, bow
Of course a good boater would take your advice to heed:
Fuel-332,000 US Gal
Holding-25,000 US Gal
Water-19,00 US Gal
Bilge water-15,000 US Gal
Lube and Hydraulic oil-16,000 US Gal
Ahh, the blissful life of a boat owner!
BTTT!
I haul mine out on weekends and it sits dry on the trailer in between. The MN DNR folks set up at boat launches to educate boaters about invasive species, and they said leaving the boat out of the water for a few days would mitigate the threat. (I actually believe this is a legitimate environmental concern, and it’s a damn shame we’re diverting resources from this to tilting at the windmills that are the imaginary idiocy of global warming).
Have you seen Paul Allen and Larry Ellison’s magnificent 400’+ yachts...absolutely magnificent!
Ed
And Ellison's Rising Sun.
Niiiiiice boats!
Allejn has (or had) one called The Medusa, I believe, that was also nice.
Supposedly Abramov the Russian billionaire is building one even bigger than these guys’ boats.
I was born and raised in Newport Beach, California, where we students got the chance to use my school’s (Newport Harbor High) catamarans (Hobie 14’s and 16’s) and an Etchells 22.
I miss that...
Ed
Hey, I had a boat there (Newport Beach). A Cal 29, a fast blue water sloop, I used to sail Catalina a lot and do the Encinada race every year. That was in the late 60’s-early 70’s. Living there must have been great.
Yeah, it was pretty cool.
My elementary school was named Bay View elementary and it was built on a bluff overlooking Back Bay and the old salt flats. In those days there were still old ruins in the flats that brave kids would go and explore during recess.
Orange County was still kinda rural, you could stop and buy avocados and citrus fruits at truck farms and stands all over the place...
My Mom graduated from Newport Harbor High in 1932, her sisters graduated in 1928! My Mom said she used to be able to hear the surf crashing on the ocean from where she lived a mile away, and sometimes the waves would break over the spit that separated the Balboa Peninsula from Newport Harbor!
My Grandmother was the editor of the society pages of the Costa Mesa Daily Pilot during WWII because the men had all gone off to war. She used to tell us of when she was ridden in a rowboat in the early ‘20’s to a series of flags sticking out of the water in Newport Harbor and they told her they were going to build an Island there, and call it Balboa Island. She was offered a chance to buy a lot for $400, and turned it down, because she thought they were crazy!
Man, would my life had turned out differently if Grandma had bought one of those lots!
Ed
Glad to see we’re tackling the political issues here.
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