Clear Your Head
Washington Sea Grant Specialists Embark on an Ambitious
Statewide Outreach Campaign
The Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission has selected Washington Sea Grant (WSG) to conduct a statewide Clean Vessel Awareness Campaign.
Launched this past summer, WSG’s Clean Vessel Awareness Campaign is promoting the use of sewage pump-out facilities by boaters in both fresh and salt water. This involves familiarizing the state’s 280,000 registered boaters with the sewage pump-out symbol created under the national Clean Vessel Act and increasing boater confidence in the reliability of the pump-out facilities they use.
“Our efforts will draw attention to an easy thing boaters can do to improve water quality,” says Dan Williams, Communications Manager for WSG and co-leader for the Clean Vessel Awareness Campaign. “Boaters value the water, and raw sewage de-values it,” he adds. “Raw or poorly treated sewage can spread disease such as hepatitis, typhoid fever and cholera. It can also contaminate shellfish beds and lower oxygen levels in water.”
Indeed, raw sewage from recreational boats is considered so toxic that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulates the number of boats that can anchor near commercial shellfish-growing operations that sell products across state lines. Sewage in the aquatic environment is recognized as one of the primary causes of so-called dead zones — relatively lifeless areas that result from pollution-related oxygen depletion of marine waters. WSG enjoys a long-standing, cooperative relationship with the boating community. It works directly with boat owners, marina operators and boating associations and other groups to curb pollution from small oil spills and provide safe and practical alternatives to spill-prone practices. In recent years, it has joined with the Northwest Marine Trade Association, Puget Soundkeeper Alliance, Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission and the Washington departments of Ecology and Natural Resources to encourage area marinas to “clean up their acts” and get certified through the Clean Marina Washington, an expansion of the multicounty EnviroStars.
The primary audience for the Clean Vessel Awareness Campaign is operators of recreational boats equipped with Type III marine sanitation devices (boat toilets with holding tanks). This target audience includes not only the operators of state-licensed vessels but also those visiting from out-of-state and others with transient moorage and live-aboard arrangements.
“The bottom line is, we need to inspire people to want to change,” says WSG’s Eric Olsson, who provides technical expertise and program management to the campaign. Olsson’s primary work for WSG focuses on oil spill prevention and preparedness, safety at sea and Clean Marina certification. “For our campaign to succeed, we need clear, easily understood signage and messaging to remind people that it’s important to ‘clear their heads’ and let them know that pump-outs do indeed work.”
Communicating this third message is a major part of the campaign. “Studies have shown that if people have had an unpleasant experience at a pump-out station, they are unlikely to return to one,” explains Olsson. “That’s been a persistent problem in the past.”
The first pump-out stations in Washington were installed in the late 1970s and early 1980s. They were powered by a diaphragm pump, which proved problematic. Unreliable diaphragm pumps were last replaced by pump-outs with peristaltic pumps. These super-dependable pumps operate without diaphragms, so less clogging occurs. For the most part, “Out of Order” signs at pump-out stations are now a thing of the past.
As a result of this changeover, “bad equipment is no longer an excuse not to pump out,” according to Aaron Barnett. A graduate student in the University of Washington’s School of Marine Affairs, Barnett first became familiar with pump-out technology as a sales rep for SaniSailor, the company that introduced peristaltic pump technology to marina owners in the United States. Today, his technical expertise and hands-on experience are invaluable to the Clean Vessel Awareness Campaign.
Chris Wilke is another important member of the Clean Vessel Awareness Campaign team. As Pollution Prevention Director for the nonprofit Puget Soundkeeper Alliance, Wilke has worked with Olsson on the Clean Marina Washington project and complements Olsson’s first-hand knowledge of boating, as well as his passion for encouraging others to “leave a light boat print.”
According to data from the Washington Boater Needs Assessment of 2007, 60 percent of marine service providers cited marine sewage as an area of particular importance, Wilke says. “They know that dumping raw or poorly treated sewage into the water poses a serious threat to the marine ecosystem, seafood harvesting and recreational use of our waters in general.”
Outreach efforts began in the Puget Sound region this past boating season. Lessons learned from this initial round of outreach will be applied to next year’s campaign, which will be extended to Eastern Washington, where large communities of recreational boaters in locales such as the Columbia River exist. This second phase will begin with boat shows and other events throughout the state in fall 2009 and winter 2010, and continue through the spring and summer 2010 boating season. Surveys distributed at the beginning and end of the campaign will help guide its direction and measure its success. WSG will also monitor use of pump-out facilities by analyzing annual usage report data compiled by Washington State Parks.
For more information, contact Dan Williams, WSG Communications Manager, at 206.616.6353 or dw7@u.washington.edu.
By Christine Coltellaro, Summer 2009 WSG Science Writing Fellow