NYCkayaker Some say boats should stop dumping in Long Island Sound

[Richard Clifford]

NYCKayaker,
    Here is a story that may grab some of you as a good cause. Same 
arguments would apply for New York City rivers. - Richard Clifford

http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070802/NEWS02/708020345*

*
*Some say boats should stop dumping in Long Island Sound*
By KEN VALENTI <MAILTO:KLVALENT at LOHUD.COM>
THE JOURNAL NEWS

(Original publication: August 2, 2007)

The state should follow Connecticut's lead in banning all boats from 
emptying their treated toilet waste in its areas of Long Island Sound, 
some local boaters and officials say.

Connecticut and Environmental Protection Agency officials announced last 
week that they had designated all of Connecticut's portion of Long 
Island Sound as a no-discharge zone.

Boats with smaller portable toilets cannot legally dump their waste 
anywhere in the estuary - or anywhere short of 3 miles into the Atlantic 
Ocean. But in New York, larger boats with onboard treatment systems can 
still release their sewage into most areas of the Sound.

Boater Todd Fellini, using the New Rochelle marina's pumpout station to 
vacuum the waste from his 25-foot motorboat yesterday, agreed with 
Connecticut's approach. His boat's portable toilet cannot be dumped 
either way, but he said all dumping should be off-limits anywhere in the 
Sound.

"Absolutely," said Fellini, 35, of New Rochelle. "Why pollute the waters 
any more than necessary?"

Terry Backer, head of the Norwalk, Conn.-based environmental group 
Soundkeeper, said pollution from boats adds up.

"There are significant impacts when you have thousands of boats out on 
the weekend discharging waste into the water," he said.

Fellini, Backer and others said the key is to be sure there are enough 
pumpout stations, like New Rochelle's, where any boater can suck out 
waste, which then is sent to the local sewage treatment system. While 
New Rochelle's pump is working - harbor master Sal Gugliara recently 
moved it to a more convenient site - not all of them work so well. 
Fellini said he had recently encountered broken pumping stations in 
Greenwich, Conn., and Manhasset Bay on Long Island.

Gugliara said he, too, would like to see dumping banned on the New York 
side, adding that he expected to eventually request that some New 
Rochelle waters be designated as no-discharge areas.

State officials have no plans to designate the entire Sound as a 
no-discharge zone, but dumping is banned in several bays, including 
Mamaroneck Harbor, and the officials are considering extending that to 
other bays in the Sound, said Lori O'Connell, spokeswoman for the 
state's Department of Environmental Conservation. Any no-discharge 
designation needs EPA approval.

The other areas with bans now are Port Jefferson and Huntington 
Bay-Northport Bay, including several adjoining harbors. Discharging is 
off-limits in the Hudson River, O'Connell noted.

In 2003, Erin Crotty, then the DEC commissioner, signed an agreement 
that, in part, called for all of the state's bays on Long Island Sound 
to be designated as no-discharge areas that year. The accord, also 
signed by Connecticut and EPA officials, was part of the Long Island 
Sound Study, the continuing state and federal effort to clean the Sound.

The accord would have included Milton Harbor in Rye and Echo Bay in New 
Rochelle, said Mark Tedesco, executive director of the EPA's Long Island 
Sound office, which coordinates the Sound study efforts.

"It's obviously something we're behind on," Tedesco said. He said the 
organizers of the study plan to update the agreement next year.

State Sen. Suzi Oppenheimer, D-Mamaroneck, has introduced a bill that 
would ban all discharges from boats in Westchester waters. While it has 
not passed the state Senate yet, she said she plans to push it again 
next year.

"It's possible the time is right," she said.

Some boaters believe banning discharges throughout the entire Sound, 
including open water far from the bays, is unnecessary.

Nick Hodnett, a boater from Rye, said he's careful to use pumpout 
stations for his 43-foot sailboat in harbors, but not when he's in 
wider, healthier areas that flush well into the Atlantic.

"If it's kind of a closed-up harbor, I've been treating it like it's a 
no-discharge zone and don't dump anything," Hodnett said. "If I'm out in 
the middle of the Sound, I haven't worried so much about it, if I'm a 
good distance from the shore."

**Where to find New York, Connecticut pumpout stations**

These Web sites show where pumpout stations are available on the New 
York and Connecticut sides of Long Island Sound.
* New York*
http://www.nysgextension.org/pumpouts/pumpouts-search.html
Lists pumpouts by region, including Long Island Sound and the Hudson River.

*Connecticut*
http://www.ct.gov/dep/cwp/view.asp?a=2705& 
<http://www.ct.gov/dep/cwp/view.asp?a=2705&>;q=323708&depNav_GID=1635
The organization Soundkeeper generally offers a free pumpout service 
available through its Web site, www.soundkeeper.org 
<http://www.soundkeeper.org>, although its New York state boat, normally 
based in Mamaroneck Harbor, is being repaired.

*On LoHud*
Would you support a similar ban in New York? Visit the "Issues in the 
Lower Hudson Valley" forum at LoHud.com/forums.

http://forums.nyjournalnews.com/viewforum.php?f=7&sid=e1a39ec96d567b7ae784cd3c5c606aee   


 
-- 
*
Richard C. Clifford, Esq.
Attorney at Law*
1890 Palmer Avenue, Suite 302
Larchmont, NY 10538

Tel: (914) 834-0100 -or- 0757
Cell: (917) 854-5824
Fax: (914) 834-0888

RichardClifford at earthlink.net 
RichardClifford at NYSBar.com


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