BOATING TIPS -- June 1999
Environmental Advisory

For boaters, life gets difficult!

On May 5, the Washington Department of Ecology issued an “environmental advisory” that declared that divers' cleaning of vessels in the water which had been painted with “sloughing and ablative anti-fouling paints and those vessels painted with tin-based compounds while the vessel is afloat is prohibited”, and the use of “mechanical or hydraulic devices for in-water hull cleaning and the manual scraping of hard growth off surfaces painted with anti-foulants is also prohibited”.

The “soft” paints referred to in the document include Interlux Red Hand, Bottomkote, and Micron CSC; Petit ACP-50 and Yacht Copper; Innovative Marine Coatings Ship Bottom, Woolsey Neptune II, and U.S. Paint Awlstar Gold Label.

Although a case can be made that bottom coating do pollute, the amount of pollution is so slight as to be nearly unmeasurable, which is why the federal government has taken no action.

And certainly, we wouldn't want any of that marine growth to be scraped off into the same waters from which it came! Just because barnacles die every day on beaches, we wouldn't want to kill any . . .

So why do we have this new, onerous, and expensive rule: Because we boaters are such an easy target! Until DOE get the message that they should deal with the big problems first and leave all us “rich yacht owners” alone, we'll continue to get nailed, like the $5,000 holding tank fine while Blaine, Seattle and Victoria get off free.

The simple message: Support RBAW, the group that lobbies for us. Send $15 NOW to Recreational Boat Owners Association, P. O. Box 26301, Federal Way, WA 98093-0601 with name, address, and club affiliation and become a member!

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