New discharge of trash MARPOL Regulation & New Flare Kit

[Pete Fallon]

Faithful,
I have been meaning to post this new rule about discharging of trash and food waste for quit a while. As of 2013 there is a change in what you can throw overboard and a new placard has to be on the vessel displayed in a visible place on your boat.
Basically you can't throw anything into the water anymore including food waste (food must be able to pass thru a screen of 1" X 1" in size., either cut up or macerated. The new rule states that basically everything has to be brought back to port and the marina must have a place to dispose of the trash, if they don't you can call the USCG for the nearest place to get rid of it.
The placard has to be 3"x 5" and lists all the items that cannot be thrown into the water. So if you have an old trash disposal placard you need a new one. The fines for non compliance are up to $40,000.00 and a Class D felony. The areas South of Jacksonville and all of the Caribbean and the islands, also all of the Great Lakes are considered a special discharge areas.
If you want to read the actual rule go to Code of Federal Regulations Title 33 Parts 151 and 158, it has a whole bunch of vessel sizes,areas and what you can and cannot discharge.

So in closing any vessel 26' or more must have the new trash placard in place, they are not very expensive but if you don't have the new placard it can be very very expensive.

Another new item that I ran across is a Weems & Plath emergency flasher that meets at USCG requirements for hand held flares. It's called Viz SOS Distress C-1001 by Weems & Plath they are running around $100.00 and meets the hand held flare requirements and it lasts longer than the 5 years for the old flare kits. Comes with a case and all rules and a day time distress flag.
Pete Fallon

[Charlie J]

as always great info pete

[cariedl]

Agreed, thanks Pete. I ordered the distress light and the placards (sold as a pack at West Marine) tonight. One minor detail, USCG boating guide - https://www.uscgboating.org/images/420.PDF suggests that the placard must be 4x9. Page 34 of the linked PDF states it must be that size. I'd like to think if boarded having the plan on 3x5 would be sufficient, but I'm sure just about everyone on this board who has had the pleasure of a "courtesy" inspection knows they probably wouldn't let it slide.

[Carl]

Huh...so then I guess chumming or chunking with pieces over 1 x 1" could also be in violation.

Guess one could make a case for not tossing back a small fish as it could technically be called littering...


I say that tongue in cheek...but I find it odd that I can haul my boat, pull off barnacles, mussels and seaweed from it and would get fined is I tossed them back into the water. Must be treated as hazardous waste...or waste...whatever the filtering system is considered at the haulout well.



Whatever the case, Thank you Pete for letting us know...could be an expensive trip not having a few dollar placard.