Posted on 11/19/2007 8:20:16 AM PST by NormsRevenge
A federal court has ruled that a fee on large commercial vessels implemented to help deal with pollution and foreign species that are dumped with ballast and bilge water also applies to private recreational craft. The fee is charged when boats travel from state to state.
Pro: The pollution and invasive-species problem is cumulative, and smaller boats contribute to it; owners should pay.
Con: The regulation targeted cargo ships and tankers. Many recreational boat owners can't afford the fee; fewer boats will have a rippling economic effect.
“Every time you exhale, you’re polluting the air. How crazy do we want to get?”
—
That’ll be $20 on crazy is as crazy does.. :-}
Not crazy it’s just california
Recreational boaters like their bilges dry. Wet bilges are smelly and unhealthy. Most recreational boats of any size have multiple automatic bilge pumps to ensure that water doesn't stay in the bilge for long.
The cooling water that flows through my engine or my HVAC system is water that was sucked into their cooling systems only moments before. If it is depositing "non-native species" into the water (and they would have to be pretty small to get past the strainers), those same species were already there.
The "gray water" that flows from sink drains and shower sumps is fresh water -- the same water I drink and brush my teeth with. Unless the municipalities that supply that water have screwed up big time, it contains no "species," non-native or otherwise.
This is not a small issue for a recreational boat owner. When I take my boat North from Maryland to Maine next summer, I will, depending on my route, pass through the waters of as many as nine different states. A trip South to Florida in the winter would take me through the waters of five different states. That adds up to a lot of money to address a "problem" that, as far as recreational boaters are concerned, is a non-issue.
We continue to pay for the liberal legacy of Nixon.
Two different questions
Trailer Boats are Responsible for introducing nuisance species to other areas. (Such as Milfoil in Southern Maine)
How to deal with the issues of small craft versus large commercial craft is another. We all play a part in preventing the proliferation of non-native species. However I don’t believe requiring all of us to obtain some EPA permit will fix anything. People need education not a tax.
It’s not just California, it a federal law. Numerous groups, such as BoatUS (of which I am a member) are fighting this. this was supposed to be for preventing non-native species FROM OVERSEAS from getting into our waterways.
Wouldn’t the trailered boat issue be solved most easily by requiring that the bottoms of the trailered boats and their trailers be hosed down with fresh water before backing the trailer into the water and launching the boat?
How is this legal? I thought the constitution prevented one state from charging a tariff on goods crossing state lines from another state. Am I wrong?
The effluent plume from sea lions at Ano Nuevo is visible from space.
Yes. This is the Federal government charging you for crossing state lines. Ain't it fun?
No, you're not wrong. The difference is that this is the feds, not the states, imposing it and it's a fee, not a tariff on goods.
Currently the recommendation is to wash down the boat, trailer, engine cooling system and any systems that use raw water (Livewells, etc)be thoroughly flushed before the boat is launched into a different body of water.
The best idea I have seen for this is a fresh water hose available at the launch ramp area. This way the boat operator can hose everything down immediatly after pulling the boat out of the water.
At any rate EPA discharge permits won’t do anything to prevent the spread of species like the Milfoil.
Hmm, and it's not for commerce either.
Just like the luxury tax that crippled the recreational boat building industry.
Or else you could take the offshore route, which many people underprepared for blue-water passages just might decide to do. Leading, of course, to a sharp spike in distress calls and deaths - a completely predictable side effect of unwise regulation...
There is also one other thing that you could throw in;
Limiting & or denying a persons travel with out any more documents. Here comes “Where are your papers! You can not travel without your papers!”
Oh yes it is! The courts define "commercial" as anything involving the expenditure of money or its equivalent (that's right, barter too). Hours on the boat, changes to its asset account of fuel, etc... is therefore all commercial.
This from a "Republican" administration. Ain't fascism grand?
It's all for your own good you know. ;-)
I’ve run offshore, and the boat and I can handle that. Doing that on a run to Florida gets dicey, though, because you are never completely out of the storm season (it doesn’t have to be a hurricane), and there are not that many good ports of refuge on an outside passage.
If the United States signs the UN’s Law of the Sea Treaty “LOST” these fees will be nothing compared to what the UN will dream up.
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