Clean Marine Solutions has been working for ten years to help boatyards and marinas bring their boat-washing operations into environmental compliance. Too many boatyards still allow toxic metals to flow directly into waterways.
As you start to use your boat, I ask you to look around the boatyard for signs of pollution. If the facility is allowing boat-wash wastewater to flow onto land or into waterways they are severely harming the marine ecosystem with toxic heavy metals. One example of this degradation is the killing of the humble and delicious oyster. An adult oyster can filter fifty gallons of water a day; all the while removing pollutants. Heavy metals kill oysters and the metals shoot right up the food chain. (Elevated metal levels are even found in waterfowl.) A study in North Carolina found that the average copper content of boat-wash wastewater to be 69,000 times the EPA’s legal limit. North Carolina has done surprising little to enforce compliance.
I ask you to have a conversation with boatyard owners and express your environmental protection concerns. Clean Marine Solutions and other fine companies can advise them on the best and most affordable way to become clean and green. We offer this service at no charge.
If management ignores you, try local enforcement agencies. They will very well ignore you also in part because congress has been remarkably successful in gutting the Clean Water and stripping agencies of operating funds.
There is recourse.
Congress anticipated that politicians would try to circumvent the law to please their polluting constituents. To fight against this, a very wise Congress added the Citizen Lawsuit Provision. (33 U.S.C. 1365). The provision allows individuals the power to take direct legal action against polluting facilities when state and federal governments are ignoring the environmental
A compliance officer takes boat-wash wastewater samples for testing. Note -This toxic wastewater is not yet in the waterway but will be with the next rainfall.
degradation . Environmental Watchdog groups are winning lawsuits that are filed directly against polluting facilities.
We have come to the point where taking direct legal action against polluters may be our only tool.
Please support Clean Marine Solutions efforts to help boatyards and marinas from polluting our
waterways.
Shouldn’t we leave it to her better than we found it?
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Thank you,
David Flagler
Founder / Owner
Clean Marine Solutions, LLC
