US holding tank regulations

[Amberjack]

Yannis asked "Holding tank Im not familiar with, what is the law up there? I understand that if you are at anchor in a secluded area it shouldn't be a problem, if you're in a marina you can use the bathrooms/showers, no?"

I believe US law prohibits pumping raw sewage within 3 miles of shore. Individual states and localities layer regulations on top of that. In my region all Puget Sound, Admiralty Inlet and San Juan Islands are no pump areas. Essentially from the south end of Puget Sound all the way to the Canada Border.
Thats the law. There is no real enforcement so marine head/holding tank usage is mostly governed by courtesy and etiquette. Pumping in an anchorage isn't cool unless its empty and even then I have reservations about it. They're never empty in the summer anyway.

Most marinas in the Seattle area have pump out facilities. In Canada I have found very few. Mostly they head out into deep water to pump. We try to follow the rules where possible but it is not always possible.

Thats pleasure boats. Cruise ships are an entirely different animal. I did a fair amount of business with them and sat in on some of the environmental hearings on how to handle their sewage. They don't have a lot of holding capacity, maybe a couple days at most. They concentrate sewage by dehydrating it, then pump the sluge when legal while underway. They say the propellers diffuse the sludge. With a 3 mile limit in the US and similar limitations in BC there is a narrow slot in the Strait of Juan de Fuca where it is legal for them to pump before they duck into BC and up the Inside Passage to Alaska where they are always within 3 miles of shore until they pop out at the north end of Vancouver Island. Since they already have spent 24 hours at the dock in Seattle during turnaround I think that narrow slot sees a lot of pumping. Worse than sewage sludge are the exhaust scrubbers. They filter the harmful particulates from the bunker exhaust to keep it out of the air, then they dump in in the water! Nobody wants to address this, not the cruise industry and not Seattle. Nobody wants to kill the golden goose.

[Yannis]

Thanks, Doug.

Here the law is similar. I don't know about the 3 miles constraint, but you certainly have to go out to pump.
Most small yachts, and probably all larger ones, do have holding tanks, the thing is how they use them.

For example, if you're stuck for several days in a port or marina and cannot move because of the weather, what can you do with a holding tank which is full? You guessed it...you wait till the night falls, the coast guard goes to sleep and you do your thing.
Others, like me, who do not have a holding tank, either use the marina facilities - by the way this is done by the great majority of the rented boats in the summer as no sailboat with one bathroom and 6-8-10 tourists can seriously contemplate the use of the head for #2 for all people aboard, crew included, so the directive which is widely respected is that you go to the marina facilities, period.
I have the additional luxury to have my dad’s house a few hundred meters from the marina where I spend most of my summer time.

If you're at anchor alone, I wouldn't worry too much...after all, the fish love your presence, provided your head has a macerator...

As for gray water, kitchen sink or showers with soap, Im not too fussy, in the evening you can see some bubbles but nobody seems to be too worried...Anyway, all showers are almost never connected to a holding tank, it is IMPOSSIBLE to have a holding tank for so much shower water, so its a matter of how discrete you can be.

In other countries, before you enter a marina the supervising authority comes and seals your holding tank’s handle shut with a wire and lead seal. If, upon departure it is found broken, you're fried on a charcoal fire.

[Tony Meola]

Yannis

Back in the day, of course we used to be able to just pump straight overboard, then they said it had to be treated. So, a lot of Boats had a LectraSan unit. It did some hocus pocus magic generating an electrical charge and treating the waste. They claimed it was clean once treated. Was it cleaner,I have no idea, but it was a good idea if it was.

Then they said no dumping within 3 miles and all bays. A large number of Marinas offered a pump out option. A number of them in my area no longer do or they charge for it. On Barnegat Bay, during the Summer they run a couple of pump out boats around the bay so that boats can get their tanks cleaned out. I am lucky enough to be in close enough range of the State Marina that is maintained by NJ. They offer free pump out, but the issue is, it breaks down a lot.

First pumping out was easy, now it is harder do to the lack of facilities. If you can use a marina's facilities that is the way to go.

[Yannis]

Tony,

Pumping overboard is WAY better for the environment than pumping a tank 3 miles away.
The reason is that when you use a holding tank you also use chemicals to break down whatever is in the tank, whereas when you just pump overboard you don't use any chemicals.
The thing is that while you pump overboard there shouldn't be too many swimmers around, at least for a while.
Our fish are trained to erase all proof within a matter of minutes...

[Tony Meola]

Yannis

We do not normally add anything to the tank. It is just pure waste and sea water. For us it is usually just liquid waste from a day out on the water. I am getting too old for overnight offshore stuff anymore. That is a young man's game.

The issue with solid waste discharge is the waste creates fecal coliform bacteria which is bad news for people swimming. But it also creates nitrogen as it breaks down, causing algae blooms.