Act Now to Protect Boating. Possible EPA Permit to Be Required for All Boats
 

Possible EPA Permit to Be Required for All Boats

 
A court decision last year will require every boat in this country to have an EPA discharge permit to operate after September 30, 2008. National Association of State Boating Law Administrators (NASBLA) has been working behind the scenes with other boating organizations to codify the exemption for recreational vessels under which the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been working for 35 years.
 
NASBLA is gravely concerned that these new fees and permits will force our members to divert resources from their primary missions of ensuring the safety and security of our nation’s waterways. Neither the EPA nor the states and territories have the infrastructure in place to handle the implications of this court decision.  
 
The original lawsuit that led to this court decision sought to address ballast water discharges from large ocean-going ships, which can introduce damaging aquatic invasive species into U.S. waters. Keeping our waterways clean and preventing the spread of invasive species is of utmost importance to the future of boating. But taking a complex permitting system designed for industrial dischargers and applying it to recreational boats will not yield significant environmental benefits and it will come at a very high cost. Requiring recreational boaters to purchase a permit would not prevent the spread of invasive species.
 
Earlier this year, Senators Barbara Boxer (CA) and Bill Nelson (FL) introduced legislation to address this problem, the Clean Boating Act of 2008. This important legislation currently has 17 cosponsors in the Senate, and was recently introduced in the House by Representatives Steve LaTourette (OH) and Candice Miller (MI).  The Senate bill is S. 2766 and the House bill is H.R. 5949.  This legislation will finally solve this issue and fully exempt recreational boaters from this onerous permitting system.
 
NASBLA members responded in force last summer to an action alert to contact their Congressional delegations. This, along with comments from many others within the boating community, has helped push this issue to the forefront. If you have not written your Members of Congress lately though, please go to www.boatblue.org immediately and tell your Members of Congress that this is an important piece of legislation that must be passed soon!

Act Now to Protect Boating

               Court Ruling Poses Serious Threat to Boating

         Support S. 2766/H.R. 5949, the Clean Boating Act of 2008

Did you know that a recent court ruling about pollution being dumped from commercial ship ballast water will also require all recreational boats to get permits by September, 2008—despite the fact that 99% of recreational boats do not have ballast tanks?

Boats and ships are different, and shouldn’t be treated the same. These costly permits—intended for commercial ships and supertankers that have brought harmful invasive water species into U.S. waters—are being developed right now to tax your boat’s engine cooling water, bilge water, and even deck runoff. This will seriously impact boating participation unless Congress acts quickly.

It's not an exaggeration to say that it will take an act of Congress to fix this problem before boaters across the country will be required to wait in DMV-style lines for multiple, complex, costly permits.
 
Click here to watch Thom Dammrich, President of the National Marine Manufacturers Association, explain this issue in an interview with BoatTest.com's Jeff Hammond.

Legislative Relief: The Clean Boating Act of 2008

Fortunately, there is simple, commonsense legislation in Congress that would solve this problem for recreational boaters. Senators Barbara Boxer (D-California) and Bill Nelson (D-Florida) and Representatives Steve LaTourette (R-Ohio) and Candice Miller (R-Michigan) have introduced the “Clean Boating Act of 2008.”  The Clean Boating Act permanently and fully restores the regulation that has existed for 35 years distinguishing between recreational boats and land-based industrial facilities and ocean-going commercial ships, cruise ships and supertankers.  

In September 2007, Senator Barbara Boxer, who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, publically pledged to her colleague Senator Bill Nelson and her boating and fishing constituents in California that she would pass legislation to restore the previous regulation for recreational boats. They introduced the "Clean Boating Act of 2008" on March 13, 2008.

 

On May 15, 2008, the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, charied by Rep. James Oberstar (D-Minnesota), voted unanimously to approve H.R. 5959, the House version of the Clean Boating Act.  This means the bill is ready to be considered by the full House of Representatives whenever it is scheduled for a vote.

 

The “Clean Boating Act of 2008” recognizes that water-based, incidental discharges from recreational boats, which are operated on average 31 days a year, are totally distinct from commercial ship discharges. To help protect the health of the nation’s waterways on which recreational boaters and anglers depend, the bill also pursues whether reasonable best management practices need to be put into place for some recreational boat discharges.

Click here to tell your Members of Congress to support S. 2766, the Clean Boating Act  

Click here to read S. 2766/H.R. 5949, the Clean Boating Act of 2008.

Click here to read a policy brief on the bill by the NMMA.

Click here to read NMMA’s press release on the Clean Boating Act of 2008.

Click here for a set of Talking Points on the Clean Boating Act of 2008.

Click here to read and Environmental Agency Fact Sheet on the problem.  

ACT NOW

Recreational Boaters, Anglers, and Boating Industry Executives and Employees Must Contact Senators Today

With only 6 months until the permit deadline, it is now time for Congress to pass legislation to protect recreational boating. The nation’s 73 million boaters need to tell their elected U.S. officials—and keep telling them—to pass the Clean Boating Act TODAY.  Get involved to protect boating.

Contact your elected officials today and tell them to do the right thing.  Tell Congress to pass the Clean Boating Act of 2008. 

Current Cosponsors of S. 2766, the Clean Boating Act of 2008

Click here for a map of all the cosponsors of S. 2766.

Senator Bill Nelson (D-Florida)

Senator Barbara Boxer (D-California)

Senator Richard Burr (R-North Carolina)

Senator David Vitter (R-Louisiana)

Senator Ben Cardin (D-Maryland)

Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-Maryland)

Senator Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine)

Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine)

Senator Johnny Isakson (R-Georgia)

Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-Georgia)

Senator Thad Cochran (R-Mississippi)

Senator Mike Crapo (R-Idaho)

Senator Larry Craig (R-Idaho)

Senator Jack Reed (D-Rhode Island)

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island)

Senator Carl Levin (D-Michigan)

Senator George Voinovich (R-Ohio)

Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-Michigan)

Senator Elizabeth Dole (R-North Carolina)

Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California)

Senator Evan Bayh (D-Indiana)

Senator Bob Corker (R-Tennessee)

Senator Herb Kohl (D-Wisconsin)

Senator Arlen Specter (R-Pennsylvania)

Senator Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi)

Senator Mary Landrieu (D-Louisiana)

Senator Norm Coleman (R-Minnesota)

Senator Tom Carper (D-Delaware)

Senator Christopher Dodd (D-Connecticut)

Senator Kit Bond (R-Missouri)

Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio)

Senator James Webb (D-Virginia