Power-Washing Operations Permitted and in Environmental Compliance

Specialty Boatworks purchased a VANISH 300™ Marina Wastewater Treatment and Recycle System from Clean Marine Solutions.

As anyone in the industry will attest, permitting is usually an aggravating, time consuming and expensive process.

Specialty Boatworks requested and received “Deemed Permitted” status per NC State Administrative Code 15A NCAC 02T.

“Deemed Permitted” status means that Specialty Boatworks did not have to go through the expensive full permitting process.

Using Clean Marine Solutions’ VANISH 300 and Closed-Loop Recycle Environmental Compliance Plan it only cost Specialty the price of a stamp to receive a permit. An environmental consulting company estimated that Specialty saved over $8,000 by not having to go through the full recycle permitting process.

Make Sure You Do Not Purchase an Obsolete System

The NC-DWQ reviewed our Closed-Loop Recycle Environmental Compliance Plan and made an on-site visit to Specialty. Their only concern was the possibility that power–wash overspray would drift onto the water and land.

We provided the NCDWQ with certified tests results of the metals in the effluent from the VANISH. The main metal of concern is copper. The tests indicate that our effluent has less copper than the EPA standard for drinking water. Deemed Permitted status was granted.

Clean Marine Solutions stands ready to help your facility become permitted with our affordable, simple to use system that will meet tough new compliance standards.

We can save you money in a multitude of ways.  Contact us for a free consultation. We stand ready to help.

David Flagler
President
Clean Marine Solutions, LLC

North Kerr Industrial Park
2925-31 Boundary Lane
Wilmington, NC 28405

Mobile – 910.617.8018

Web – www.cleanmarinesolutions.com

Note: Although Clean Marine Solutions guarantees that our Marina Wastewater Treatment and Recycle System will not be the stumbling block in your facility receiving deemed permitted status from the NC-DWQ, it is the individual boatyard or marina that requests Deemed Permitted status for their whole recycling system and plan. The NC-DWQ requires an on-site visit to determine if a facility qualifies for deemed permitted status. The VANISH 300 is not in and of itself “deemed permitted.” The state is prohibited from endorsing any system.

British Publication touts the VANISH ADVANTAGE

Click either link below to read Sarah Devlin’s article:

Clean Marine Solutions featured in Marina World Magazine (reformatted article as pdf)

Or view Marina World online with the link below:

http://www.marinaworld.co.uk/ page 57

Last March, a dozen specialists from the North Carolina Division of Water Quality gathered at Bennett Brothers Yachts in Wilmington, North Carolina, to observe in action a new machine that collects and processes wastewater from pressure-washing boat bottoms. What they witnessed was David Flagler, head of Clean Marine Solutions, demonstrating the prototype Vanish 300 Hybrid Wastewater Treatment System.

Flagler’s mission has been to develop an affordable method of environmental compliance for boatyards and marinas. He says the Vanish 300 Hybrid system fits the bill because of its lower initial cost, lower operating costs, simple operation, and reduced permitting. A top official with the NCDWQ told him, “Your system will not need a wastewater discharge permit because you are not discharging any wastewater.” (Indeed, the NCDWQ has just granted “deemed approved” status to the system and its environmental compliance plan. Marine service facilities that purchase the system will not have to go through the lengthy, expensive full-permitting process.)_ Flagler says his system can reduce 50 gal (189 l) of heavy-metal-laden wastewater generated from pressurewashing boats into a cup of dried flocculant that is easily permitted for disposal at most municipal landfills. He says manual tests by the NCDWQ showed that more than 99.5% of the copper from bottom paint is removed. (Typical drinking water has nine times more copper than is in the Vanish effluent.)

Flagler has not found any published estimates of how many yards in the United States are in compliance with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency discharge standards, as outlined in the federal Clean Water Act. Interviews with marina associations suggest that relatively few yards are in compliance. While some states have made great progress, a NCDWQ report estimates that the average marina exceeds discharge limits by a factor of 69,000.

Here’s Flagler on the Vanish 300 Hybrid: “We call it a hybrid system because the clarified wastewater vanishes through a combination of evaporation and recycling. Recycle systems typically have to purge wastewater that has become too foul to use. The Vanish 300 Hybrid system never needs to discharge odiferous wastewater. Recycle systems will incur additional expenses for compliance and permitting in order to dispose of purged wastewater.”

Recycle systems introduce fresh water to “make up” the wastewater lost to evaporation or overspray. The Vanish 300 Hybrid system also does this, but it introduces fresh water at a much higher rate, which has distinct advantages: no need for odor-reducing ozone or ultraviolet components that add to the initial cost of typical recycle systems, and add as well to operating and maintenance expenses.

Flagler says his 36″ (0.9m) evaporator uses about $12 of electricity per month (160 hours). The system works with or without the evaporator; in some locales it may be most economical to get permitted to discharge the clarified wastewater to a municipal sewer system. This obviates the need for an evaporator.

Flagler points out a bureaucratic absurdity: per the EPA’s discharge standards, it is illegal to spray off your boat’s bottom with municipal water. Why? Because most tap water has more than 400 times the amount of copper allowed by the EPA discharge standards!

The Vanish Water Clarifier utilizes flocculation chemistry similar to that of municipal water plants around the world, Flagler says. In an automated series of operations, precise quantities of caustics and polymers are injected into the wastewater and mixed. The heavy metals flocculate into clusters, which fall to the bottom of a settling tank. The clarified wastewater is pumped through a 5-micron filter and then pumped to a holding tank. Clarified water from the holding tank feeds the evaporative system or is pumped to a pressure washer for recycling.

Flagler is a veteran boatbuilder who developed innovative boatbuilding education programs in North Carolina and Hawaii, and whose major in college was chemistry.

Article can be viewed on-line: http://www.proboat-digital.com/proboat/e20090809/ August / September 2009 issue #120   (starts page 10)

Click link to here Barbara Jean Walsh of Professional BoatBuilder magazine interview David Flagler of Clean Marine Solutions.

David will also tell you how to build a wastewater containment pad for under $400. This pad works great until you can afford a more permanent containment pad.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ProBoatRadio/2009/09/15/Clean-Marine-Solutions

Vanish 300 featured on WWAY  TV Evening News.

He notes that:

“…  it now appears that every company using a powerwash system will have to be permitted.”

See full article and pertinent links at:

http://www.ncwaterways.com/BusinessAssistance/TradeWinds/2009TW/09-8/stormwater.htm

If you are in the marine industry in NC , we strongly advise that you sign up for the free newsletter at:

NCWaterways.com

Clean Marine Solutions, LLC (CMS) has been awarded a North Carolina Green Business Fund Grant of $84,600 to fund their business concept that offers an affordable solution for boat yards and marinas to meet environmental compliance standards. The grant is administered by the North Carolina Board of Science and Technology.  Governor Bev Perdue announced the award at a press conference at the corporate headquarters of Innovatech in Morrisville, NC on August 7.

David Flagler, Clean Marine Solutions President, says the goal of the project is to reduce the negative environmental impact caused by discharge of copper-laden, toxic wastewater that is generated from power washing boats. “Our unique ‘no-discharge’ prototype reduces a 50 gallon drum of toxic wastewater to less than a cup of dry particulate that is easily permitted for disposal.”

CMS, based in Wilmington, North Carolina, designs and manufactures wastewater treatment systems and offers environmental compliance consulting services for marine service facilities that decide to take the next step in their “Go Green” initiatives and bring their power wash operations in alignment with the Federal Clean Water Act.

“Copper is the most common heavy metal found in marina waters,” Flagler says. ”It negatively impacts the marine eco-system in a variety of ways.”

For example, a healthy oyster removes oxygen-depleting nitrogen as it filters more than 50 gallons of water a day. But copper reduces the natural cleansing ability of oysters and other mollusks, and affects their ability to reproduce.

“The impact of toxic wastewater discharge increases exponentially as mollusks and algae are eaten by animals higher on the food chain,” says Flagler.

There are presently few service boat yards or marinas in North Carolina, and relatively few nation-wide, whose power washing operations are in compliance with the Federal Clean Water Act.

According to Flagler, the grant will provide money for custom systems at four North Carolina marine service facilities.   The goal of Clean Marine Solutions is to help boat yards and marinas comply with the Federal Clean Water Act.

Flagler was formerly a tenured professor and director of the Marine Education and Training Center at Honolulu Community College, University of Hawai’i. He is also the former director of the North Carolina Marine Training and Education Center at Carteret Community College.

Flagler studied chemistry at the University of North Carolina and conducted his first experiments in marine wastewater treatment at Cape Fear Community College 20 years ago.

For sixteen years, he taught hands-on classes in the broad array of skills necessary to manufacture and service pleasure craft and trained marina operators and students in environmental compliance and marine wastewater treatment system operation.

Clean Water for Boatyards and Marinas

Why go green? For starters, many boatyards and marinas are presently in violation of the Federal Clean Water Act. The wastewater generated by pressure-washing boat bottoms contains toxic heavy metals. Tests by the North Carolina Division of Water Quality indicate that the copper in that wastewater is typically 69,000 times the EPA standard. Although individual states are charged with enforcement, it is federal law that is enforced. With the Obama administration, the EPA will be given the green light to enforce the law. Do you want to be the first facility in your service area to be fined? How would it affect your bottom line if you were ordered to cease pressure-washing activities until you achieved compliance? The good news: marine publications and local media are giving front-page publicity to compliant yards and marinas. A boatyard that is clean and green will earn a lot more than just positive publicity; it will bring in increased business from a better-informed public. Your employees and slip owners or renters will take pride in being part of a green marina. This seminar will give you a heads-up on compliance challenges you’ll find hard to believe, and introduce affordable wastewater compliance solutions.

Speakers: David Flagler (Clean Marine Solutions LLC), Kellie Thornell-Crete (Ink Inc.)

Link – http://ibexshow.com/