Many of the Bay Area’s 40 marinas allow slip-renters to live aboard vessels in their harbors.
BayGreen uses pump-equipped vessels to travel from marina to marina pumping out boats from their assigned slips. The service costs between $6 and $35, depending on the number of boats being serviced in each marina. Photo Courtesy of BayGreen
By Bill Picture
Published: May, 2011
Many of the Bay Area’s 40 marinas allow slip-renters to live aboard vessels in their harbors. San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC) regulations allow marinas to rent only 10 percent of their slips to live-aboards, but many illegal live-aboards occur with the help of lenient harbormasters.
Marina owners provide onshore, plumbed restrooms for their customers—recreational boaters and live-aboards alike. Still, many boat owners opt for the convenience of their onboard latrines. Local, state and federal laws forbid the emptying of holding tanks into the Bay, but some concerned Bay Area boaters say it’s happening anyway.
“It’s just gross,” said Dan Augustine, who calls the Bay’s chilly, blue waters home for much of the year.
Some chalk it up to convenience; others, laziness. Almost all of the marinas provide fixed-location pump stations. To use them, however, boat owners must unmoor their vessels and re-dock alongside the pump stations. Less experienced pump-users may also find the pumping equipment difficult or even messy to use.
“It’s a lot easier to just empty into the water when no one’s looking,” said Augustine, a former school teacher.
In 2006, Augustine’s students asked him what happens to the contents of on-vessel holding tanks. Augustine told them that some boat owners pump out their tanks, but others illegally discharge the waste into the water. Horrified, many of his students swore they’d never so much as dip a toe into the ocean. It was then that Augustine recognized an opportunity to help preserve the Bay for future generations and earn a living by offering dockside pump-outs to fellow boat owners.
Augustine founded BayGreen, a company that uses pump-equipped vessels to travel from marina to marina pumping out boats from their assigned slips. The service costs between $6 and $35, depending on the number of boats being serviced in each marina. The more boats that BayGreen services at each stop, the lower the per-boat charge.
The challenge of enforcement
If emptying holding tanks into the Bay is illegal, then how are boat owners getting away with it? The reality is that the law is very difficult to enforce.
There are nearly 11,000 slips in the Bay Area, most of which are currently occupied. In fact, some of the more popular marinas have waiting lists for slips. Even though theoretically only 10 percent are live-aboards—and other boats rarely, if ever, get used—monitoring that many boats would require a small army, which cash-strapped government agencies can’t afford.
Thus, the burden of enforcement falls in the laps of marina owners. Slip rental contracts specifically state that valves used to empty holding tanks into the water be locked, and that holding tanks be pumped and not dumped. But enforcement isn’t easy or necessarily in marina owners’ best interest, financially speaking.
“Inspections take time, and harbormasters are already short-staffed,” Augustine said. “Plus, slips are opening up left and right because people can’t afford to keep their boats. Pricing has become very competitive, and active enforcement could make a boat owner pack up and move.”
Still, Augustine has managed to enlist the help of a number of harbormasters who share his concern for the Bay’s wellbeing. Although reluctant to add BayGreen’s pump-out charge to the monthly berthing fee, they’re helping to spread the word about BayGreen.
Some marina owners have even begun asking to see a monthly pump-out log from each renter, to nudge boat owners into either using the marina’s pumping station or a pump-out service. Most marina contracts require that boat owners keep such a log, but harbormasters have rarely, if ever, actually looked at it.
Damage multiplied
The discharge of untreated human waste into the Bay is a bad idea and, among other things, can create “dead zones.” While tides do a good job of diluting pollutants in most parts of the Bay and carrying those pollutants out to open waters, those areas that don’t get a good enough tidal flushing will see oxygen-depleting algal blooms that render the waters unlivable for marine organisms.
“There are marinas where the algae is already so thick that I have to shut down my engines. Otherwise the algae blocks the engine’s cooling passages,” Augustine said.
The potential problem is serious enough to warrant a recent re-launch of the California Department of Boating and Waterways and the California Coastal Commission’s “Boating Clean & Green” campaign.
The campaign, which originated in 1997, now has a mascot, Reilly the Rainbow Trout, as well as a new series of posters, which are being distributed free of charge to marinas, yacht and sailing clubs, marine supply stores, fishing associations and boat launch ramps throughout the state. One of the posters urges boaters to use pump-outs and dump stations.
As if the environmental impact caused by discharging waste into the Bay weren’t enough, a potential public relations problem is also looming for the Bay Area. The 34th America’s Cup, which is coming to the Bay in 2013, is expected to attract thousands of fans from around the world, and will put the Bay Area under a high-powered media microscope.
“All eyes will be on the Bay,” said Augustine. “And what do you think is going to happen if and when reporters notice that the Bay is dirty? We brag about how green we are, and our Bay has you-know-what floating around in it.”
Augustine conceded that discharge from holding tanks is only one of many factors contributing to the pollution of the Bay. Still, he believes it’s a good place to start.
“It’s a fixable problem,” he said. “And it’s a problem that I want to see fixed. Sure, I want to grow my business. But the San Francisco Bay is also my home. Not Berkeley, not San Francisco—the water itself is my home. And I want to see it protected.”
And as word spreads, things may be moving in a greener direction. “The outlook isn’t all bad,” Augustine reported shortly before we went to press. “Berkeley Marina just signed up with BayGreen and is now providing a free pump-out service call to each of its tenants every month, and Emery Cove has an active pump-out log reporting program. It’s a great step in the right direction.” Augustine also reported an encouraging weekend at the Strictly Sail Boat Show in April, where he found many boaters and harbormasters receptive to his firm’s services.
For more information on BayGreen, visit www.baygreen.net.
The problem of illegal dumping of untreated waste is serious enough to warrant a recent re-launch of the “Boating Clean & Green” campaign. One of the posters urges boaters to use pump-outs and dump stations.
Dan Augustine, founder of BayGreen performing a pumpout for one of his many Bay Area clients. Photo Courtesy of BayGreen
