- Local News for Southern Sailors - June 2002 Next Story
The real poop on marine heads...
or how to dump legally in the ocean
By Capt. J. Michael Shea, JD
For those of you who are not familiar with the origin of the word, the "head" was the place in the bow of the old sailing ships where sailors could sit to relieve themselves. It consisted of a group of boards used to support the bowsprit, called headboards. The sailors would sit between those boards and the place became known as the head. With the help of the Clean Water Act and a lot of other federal regulations, we have managed to make that simple act very complicated.
In U.S. waters, any vessel with installed toilets is required to carry a Coast Guard approved marine sanitation device (MSD). A MSD is designed to receive, retain, treat, or discharge sewage, including any processing material to treat such sewage. If you own a recreational boat with an installed toilet, you must have a Type I, II or III MSD. If the vessel is over 65 feet the MSD must be a Type II or Type III. Only MSDs that have a Coast Guard approved label on them can be installed and used.
Just to confuse everyone, the Coast Guard has made Type III the easiest to have as it uses a holding tank. The capacity of the Type II holding tank is left up to the vessel manufacturer, with some strong suggestions from the Coast Guard.
Type II is the next least restrictive, requiring effluent to have a fecal coliform bacteria count no greater than 200/100 milligram per liter and suspended solids no greater than 150 milligrams per liter. These heads are commonly biological (aerobic digestion) plants, but there are also several physical and chemical plants that have been certified by the Coast Guard.
The Type I MSD is most restrictive, requiring the effluent discharge to be less then 1000/100 milliliters of fecal coliform bacteria count and no visible floating solids. These are the physical/chemical types of marine heads (macerators/chlorinators).
The federal law allows states and local governments to impose local restrictions that are more restrictive than the federal requirements. For that reason, every boater must still check out the local laws before being certain as to compliance. There are areas where no discharge of treated or untreated sewage is permitted. In those areas, or when operating in any U.S. waters, if you do not have your MSD connected to one of the above devices, you will have to secure your toilets or the overboard discharge valve. The acceptable methods include padlocking overboard discharge valves in the closed position, using non-releasable wire to hold overboard discharge valves in the closed position, closing overboard discharge valves and removing the handle, or by locking the door with a padlock or key to the space enclosing the toilet.
The law requires a MSD while on the Great Lakes, navigable waters, and U.S. territorial waters (three nautical miles offshore). A valve may be used on any MSD to discharge raw sewage directly overboard when the vessel is outside U.S. territorial waters, but the valve must be secured in the closed position as described above when operating in U.S. territorial waters. Foreign flag vessels must meet international requirements as well as U.S. requirements when in U.S. territorial waters.
|
Portable toilets are not subject to the regulations requiring MSDs because they are not considered installed toilets. But they are subject to the laws which prohibit the disposal of raw sewage within U.S. waters. And they may not be used to bring a vessel which is required to have heads into compliance.
Houseboats are another story. The federal law defines a houseboat as a vessel which, for a period of time determined by the state in which the vessel is located, is used primarily as a residence and is not used primarily as a means of transportation. A state or local government may require that houseboats less than 65 feet in length (with an installed Type I MSD) install Type II or III MSDs.
Gray water discharge is not prohibited because it is not considered sewage. Gray water is defined as drainage from dishwater, showers, laundry, bath and wash basin drains. The Coast Guard does not recommend that galley water be drained into Type III holding tanks as the food waste makes it more difficult to decompose human sewage. Gray water is not sewage and may be discharged overboard without passage through an MSD or holding tank.
If your vessel is discharging effluent that does not meet EPA criteria, the vessel operator is subject to a civil penalty of $2,000, for each violation.
There is an increasing number of vessels installing Type I MSDs, which permit more flexibility in the discharge of treated sewage.
The Coast Guard and the EPA have not started regulating buckets and railing used for discharging sewage, and they just may be the easiest way to approach legal overboard discharging.
Major points to remember:
|