Black Water Discharging. What really happens?

[JStone]

Whether in a marina, on hook, or coastal cruising, what do people really do with black water? What do YOU do? What are your opinions?

[Ukeluthier]

The only right thing.

We pump out at a pump-out station. Our boat doesn't even have capability for overboard discharge.

I'm aware of all the arguments about the minimal contributions of the boat community to the overall pollution load compared to [name your polluter of choice], but we prefer not to contribute AT ALL to the further deterioration of our beloved Chesapeake Bay.

[jeepbluetj]

Pump out station or macerate > 3 miles.

Since we almost always daysail at least 3 mi out, we rarely use a pumpout station. There's 3 of them at my marina and they all work well, we used em alot before I fixed the macerator.

Removed the Y valve when I replumbed the head. 1. No reason to direct overboard on costal trips. 2. It was in backwards - one way hooked the head to the tank. The other way hooked the tank overboard. But not to drain (as it was in the loop).

Of course, since I'm so-cal, the poo police in Catalina often drop in dye tabs to make sure I'm following the rules. But I would anyway.

[a64pilot]

Pump out at the marina, I can't empty the tank any other way

[thinwater]

Follow the rules. That was easy. Mostly pump-outs, sometimes outside 3 miles. Not that hard. If it was, I'd install a system that worked for the area.

And now someone is going to rant about POTW overflows and fish.

[hpeer]

It all depends upon where you are. In crowded and built up environments where there are lots of facilities, go by the book.

But I also sail in places where there are NO pump out stations. Their you do what you gotta do, even though it is illegal. No other choice.

[bletso]

We avoid the problem completely, we installed a Nature"s Head, a composting head.

Before that we used the marina facilities or waited to go off shore.

[Captain Bill]

Inside I use a pumpout, outside 3 miles it goes overboard. The heads empty into the holding tank so there is no option for directly overboard.

[dpddj]

I'm sure some of the lobster here in Maine have dined on illegally dumped tootsie rolls (I don't like lobster anyhow), but there are plenty of pumpouts available, many of them N/C. Some services will come to your boat and do the deed.
Only once this year, when two services were down, did we dump overboard, but we were well out of the three mile limit. Otherwise we pump.
Ya gotta know when to hold 'em.....
It was only a handful of years ago that we took one of the ferries to one of the islands. There was an old hotel/restaurant on the shore that at that time was exempted from treating its sewage. It was simply lovely standing on the ferry dock watching the turds flow by. That situation has been changed, thankfully.

[Livia]

S Pacific: As far as I know there are no pump out stations between Mexico and Australia - everyone is pumping overboard.

[Alan Mighty]

Originally Posted by Livia

S Pacific: As far as I know there are no pump out stations between Mexico and Australia - everyone is pumping overboard.

Likewise since leaving Darwin, Australia: Arafura Sea, Banda Sea, Java Sea, Singapore Strait, Malacca Strait ...

In the channel exiting Trinity Inlet (Cairns, Australia), I had the rare privilege of following a tourist dive boat out along the channel.

A tourist dive boat is a motor vessel that takes a few hundred tourists out to the reef for a snorkel and lunch. Deal is the crew do not pump out at dock overnight, so when the boat heads out next morning and clears the channel, she empties her holding tank of its collection from the day before in a long continuous stream of liquid, with the occasional solid that missed the mandatory macerator, stained a solid colour clearly associated with the bile pigment (resulting from the breakdown of haemoglobin) from persons with healthy livers.

Which raises the question: why is it called black water?

OED has first use of the term dated 1970, from the publication Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (the publication now amusingly called PNAS).

Al

[valhalla360]

Originally Posted by hpeer

It all depends upon where you are. In crowded and built up environments where there are lots of facilities, go by the book.

But I also sail in places where there are NO pump out stations. Their you do what you gotta do, even though it is illegal. No other choice.

This is probably the best and most logical answer.
- If you are in a marina or crowded anchorage and see a brown trout floating by, it's just nasty. Don't do it.
- If you are in an isolated rural area with no one around, it's pretty much harmless (you aren't degrading anything contrary to popular opinion)

We also went with a natures head to avoid the whole argument.

[denverd0n]

I follow the law. Whether the laws make real sense or not, you can still get into a lot of trouble if you get caught violating them. I choose not to play the odds in this case, as the consequences can be (depending on where you are) pretty severe.

[weavis]

A 6 mile round trip every now and then is not so bad............

[accomplice]

I'm beyond 3 miles far more often than the holding tank is full. Every now and then I remember to pump it out when we are at sea.

Recently, though, our macerator pump failed (spectacularly) -- so pumping it out at sea wasn't an option unless I wanted to revert to the manual pump, which would have soiled those otherwise pristine hoses. So... I had my first trip to the pump-out dock in this boat as one does not want to replace a macerator pump with a full holding tank.