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| ACTION ALERT: PROPOSED WASTE DISCHARGE REGULATIONS THREATEN B.C. PLEASURE BOATING, COASTAL COMMUNITIES
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September 5, 2006. Norm Dyck, the Government Affairs contact with the B.C. Marine Trades Association (BCMTA), chairman of the Regional Recreational Boating Advisory Council, and a whole list of other boating/government offices, just sent this troubling memo (click here to read the memo; be patient, the file may be slow to load) about proposed small craft sewage discharge regulations for B.C. In short, the new regulations would require all sewage to be discharged ashore, and that a detailed log kept of each discharge: nature of discharge, quantity transferred, method of transfer, and receipt for same. This is absurd. Most B.C. coastal communities (including the city of Victoria) do not have sewage treatment plants, or access to sewage treatment plants. This is especially true north of Lat. 50N (roughly, the southern boundary of Desolation Sound).
The effect of these proposed regulations will be to wipe most pleasure craft from most of saltwater B.C. There’ll be no place to pump the potty.
When the boats disappear, so will the facilities. Say good-bye many marinas, fuel docks, and haulout and repair sites. Say good-bye important tourist revenues all the way along the B.C. coast.
Does the Waggoner have a stake in this issue? You bet it does. If boats can’t go cruising in B.C. because there’s no place to empty the holding tank, there’s much less need for a Waggoner. Or for a Pacific Yachting, West Coast Boat Journal and other local marine publications.
All because these regulations, if adopted, fly in the face of reality.
The reality is, the policies that exist today work very well. Presently, B.C. has designated 11 “No Discharge Zones” on its saltwater coast. These are bays that don’t exchange water well and would become polluted if discharge were allowed. As for the rest of the coastline – Strait of Juan de Fuca, Strait of Georgia, Johnstone Strait, Queen Charlotte Strait, Queen Charlotte Sound and the waters north – the discharge from a few people on a few pleasure craft, for a few weeks each year, has no negative effect. Truly, “the solution to pollution is dilution.”
To be fair, the regulators have a dilemma. The 2001 Canada Shipping Act dictates that no vessel with a fitted toilet may discharge sewage into Canadian waters, and requires that regulations be brought in line with this requirement. But the effect will be to seriously damage all of coastal B.C. The phrase, “The Constitution is not a suicide pact,” first attributed to Abraham Lincoln, can apply to Canada as well as the U.S.
Please read Norm Dyck’s memo, linked above. The comment period ends September 15, 2006. The contact is Mr. Tom Morris, Transport Canada. His e-mail is morrist@tc.gc.ca.
--Bob Hale
Bob Hale’s letter to Tom Morris at Transport Canada.
Tom Morris
Manager, Environmental Protection AMSEE
Transport Canada, Marine Safety
Dear Mr. Morris:
I hope you will not take offense at a critical comment from a U.S. publisher, because I am writing in defense of Canadians who have become warm friends.
I am the editor and publisher of the Waggoner Cruising Guide, an annual guidebook for pleasure craft boating Inside Passage waters, from the south end of Puget Sound to Prince Rupert. The book began in 1994. It is updated each year from my own visits by car to the end of the road at Lund, and by car to all of Vancouver Island. We then travel by boat from Seattle to Prince Rupert and back, revisiting many places already seen by car, and seeing places that can be visited only by boat or float plane. We tie up at the docks, we anchor in the anchorages. We cross the large and dangerous bodies of open water and we transit the narrow tidal rapids. We use the charts, the radio, the radar and GPS. The book that results is called “the bible” by cruising boaters. If you were traveling by boat in these waters, you would have the Waggoner at your fingertips, and you would refer to it daily.
I say this not to sell you a Waggoner Cruising Guide, but to suggest that nearly 15 years of publishing a guidebook, and more than 30 years of boating these waters, gives me a certain body of knowledge about the subject.
I am deeply concerned that if enacted, the proposed sewage discharge regulations will wipe pleasure craft from much of saltwater B.C., and drive many family-owned marina resorts out of business. Most of the B.C. coast is wilderness. Except for Vancouver Island, there are no roads or towns. North of Campbell River on Vancouver Island, the few towns that do exist suffer from lack of industrial base. Populations are small and real estate values are low. The few glimmers of good news: i.e., a new project is proposed – are countered by bad news: the mill is closing.
One bright spot for these communities and outposts is the arrival each summer of pleasure craft. They cruise the coast for at least a week, often for a month, sometimes for two months or more. Regardless of their size, most of these boats carry just two people, typically a middle-age to older husband and wife. These people are financially secure, and they spend money. They dine in the restaurants. They buy from local merchants, and stock up at the grocery stores. They buy marine supplies. They keep the marine mechanics and haul-out yards busy (boats are always breaking something). Beginning with a trickle of boats in April and increasing to a peak in July and August, the boaters come, they leave a lot of money, and they go home. Without this flood of boating visitors, the struggling communities and outposts of the B.C. coast would be deeply hurt.
Now come the proposed sewage regulations, and there go the boats. There is no workable alternative to small boats discharging their waste directly into the waters. North of Powell River, the only towns with sewage treatment capability are Campbell River, Port McNeill, Alert Bay, Sointula and Port Hardy. All are located on or adjacent to Vancouver Island. All are a day’s run across dangerous bodies of water from the safe but remote cruising grounds of mainland B.C. North of tiny Lund, no towns are located on the mainland side until you reach Kitimat or Prince Rupert -- only outposts and marinas owned and operated by individual families. Many of these facilities are on floats, held to shore by stiff-legs. Electrical power is from diesel generators or mini hydro generators in a fast-running nearby stream. Filtered drinking water is only sometimes available. Telephone service is good in some places, but spotty to non-existent in most. Transport is by boat or float plane. Supplies come in by barge or water taxi.
It would be wrong to expect these family-run marinas and outposts to handle the waste from visiting boats, because they don’t have the resources to install a waste-treatment facility. Does any individual family?
So it comes to this: If the proposed sewage discharge regulations are enacted, boats will not be able to cruise these waters because pumpout facilities will be too distant or too dangerous to reach. Without the summertime visiting boats, many if not most of the coastal outposts will disappear. The B.C. coast is not the city or anything like the city. The B.C. coast is wilderness, with bear, cougar, deer, mink, marten and wolves – and very few people.
The B.C. coast is also where boaters face the risk of storm force winds and high seas, even in summertime. All travel hangs on the four-times-daily marine weather forecast. High winds and strong currents can set up dangerous, even deadly seas. The Strait of Juan de Fuca, the Strait of Georgia, Johnstone Strait, Queen Charlotte Strait, Queen Charlotte Sound and all the waters north are to be respected. When conditions are right, boats go. When conditions are wrong, boats wait. It would be an unconscionable sacrifice of safety to require boats to go out in dangerous conditions simply to discharge waste. Even in good conditions, it is unworkable to require boats to travel 30, 50 or even 100 miles to a town that could take their waste.
Fortunately, the B.C. coast handles the waste needs of boats very well on its own. The waters are cold and deep, the tidal range is large, and the swirling currents are strong. Two people, even four people, aboard a boat don’t create much actual waste in a day. Even with the arrival of summer visitors, the coastal population today is far, far less than any time in the past 5000-10,000 years. The coastal environment is not threatened in the least.
Do men serve laws, or do laws serve men? If laws serve men, surely flexibility can be found where flexibility is needed. Visiting pleasure craft are vital to the dozens of family-run outposts along the B.C. coast, and hugely important to the few small towns. I urge the government of Canada to recognize the unique nature of the B.C. coast, and the effect of lost jobs, homes and businesses if the proposed regulations are adopted.
Sincerely,
Robert Hale
Editor/Publisher
Waggoner Cruising Guide
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