RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, Congress passed the Clean Vessel Act in 1992 to help reduce pollution from vessel sewage discharges. The Act established a five-year federal grant program administered by the Fish and Wildlife Service and authorized $40,000,000 for use by the states. Reauthorized in 1998, Congress extended the grant program through 2003, authorizing $50,000,000 to continue providing alternatives to overboard disposal of recreational boater sewage; and

WHEREAS, currently, vessels use four types of sewage disposal systems. Many people on small boats use portable toilets that can be drained at dump stations. Vessels over twenty-six feet in length, however, typically have marine sanitation devices. Marine sanitation devices are available in three forms, all of which can hold waste for disposal at a pumpout station; and

WHEREAS, the Clean Vessel Act provides a portion of its total funding for educational outreach regarding the effects of boater sewage and the means by which boaters can avoid improper sewage disposal. The first goal aims to inform boaters of the importance of proper boater sewage disposal. The second goal informs boaters and marina operators of sewage disposal problems, educates them on the use and advantages of pumpout and dump stations, where to best locate these stations, and the fact that discharging untreated sewage on all fresh water bodies and any marine waters inside the three-mile territorial limits of the United States is illegal; and

WHEREAS, the Clean Vessel Act was created to provide a viable alternative to the overboard disposal of recreational boater sewage. All recreational vessels must have access to pumpouts funded under the Act. The Act made grants available to the states on a competitive basis for the construction, renovation, operation, and maintenance of pumpout and portable toilet dump stations. States may make sub-grants to public and private marinas to install pumpouts. Since the Act's passage in 1992, grants have been awarded to install two thousand two hundred pumpout stations and one thousand four hundred dump stations; and

WHEREAS, untreated sewage discharges from recreational and commercial boats can adversely affect sheltered waters with low flushing rates like harbors, waters with significant recreational value like rivers, areas designated for recreational fishing and aquaculture, state and federally designated significant habitats like wetlands, as well as waters designated by the Environmental Protection Agency as "No Discharge Areas"; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Twenty-Second Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2003, the House of Representatives concurring, that the members of Hawaii's congressional delegation are requested to support the reauthorization of the Clean Vessel Act; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the members of Hawaii's congressional delegation.

Report Title:

Supporting the Reauthorization of the Clean Vessel Act