Boating

July 25, 2016

To paraphrase an old saying, “There’s no use crying over spilled oil.” Yet many are concerned with oil pollution in Puget Sound and in the San Juan Islands.

What people don’t realize is that the biggest source of spills so far in the region has not been tankers and freighters, but small recreational and commercial vessels. Small spills, such as oily bilge discharge, account for 75 percent of the oil dumped into local waters over the last 10 years.

In ...

March 29, 2016

Pumpout boats, public education, and collaboration with marinas divert 8 million gallons of onboard sewage to onshore treatment in 2015.

In 2014, Pumpout Washington, a joint project of Washington Sea Grant and Washington State Parks, helped divert a record 6 million gallons of raw sewage from Puget Sound, Lake Washington, and other state waterways. Now the 2015 numbers are in and they blow 2014’s record away. More than 8.3 million gallons that would previously have been dumped into vulnerable ...

July 25, 2015

Data show that commercial and recreational boaters spill more oil in Washington waters than tankers. This summer, WSG staff and the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary will kick off a summer campaign to give away free small oil spill clean up kits at vessel safety inspections, as part of a focused education and awareness campaign to prevent small oil spills among commercial and recreational boats. The Campaign begins this Thursday and will continue through August with distribution of 1,000 ...