Let's Put Aside Political Correctness and Face the Truth
I just returned from a visit to the Conch Republic. The big news in Key West is closure of the beaches--all of the beaches--due to fecal contamination. Many of the island's sewer pipes have disintegrated, so raw sewage is flowing through what is essentially a covered trench. That might be okay in granite, but it's not so good in coral. To make matters worse, parallel storm drains provide the sewage an even more direct route to the sea.
"And," as my Key West friend spontaneously pointed out, "you just know that all those boats in the anchorage are pumping directly overboard."
Conch Republicans, including my friend, have known for decades that sewage treatment systems in the Florida Keys are inadequate, outdated and in disrepair. Efforts to ward off the inevitable included a moratorium on building, quickly abandoned when financial interests trumped ecological concerns. There is no mystery here. This is not a whodunit. Pollution surrounds the island, and its source is the toilets ashore.
Still, my friend is correct. Even though federal law has for nearly 25 years forbidden overboard discharge in coastal waters, many, perhaps most, recreational boats still pump raw sewage overboard. It is our dirty little secret.
Given the vested interest sailors have in clean water, what could precipitate such bad-boy behavior? How can we publicly support clean water while secretly pumping our heads overboard?
Let's put aside political correctness and face the truth. Who honestly believes that storing excrement under your bunk is a good idea? Holding tanks stink, leak, and sometimes burst. Handling a pump-out hose is not just unpleasant; it is a clear and present health hazard. From the perspective of boat and crew, disposing of excrement immediately is simply the most sanitary way of dealing with it.
The fundamental question is, it seems to me, is pooping in the ocean a villainous act? To answer that, we need to understand the impact of human waste on water quality. I believe it is possible to draw a valid parallel with another natural bodily function--breathing. Every time you exhale, you are "polluting" the air with carbon dioxide. Scientists believe that rising temperatures worldwide--this summer being a perfect example--are due to excessive amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. It is called global warming, and doomsayers warn that the long-term effects will be catastrophic.
Here is the point: When you exhale, you are contributing to global warming. Of course, your car puts a million times more carbon dioxide into the air than you do. But it is undeniably true that your breathing contributes to air pollution. Or does it? If we stopped driving internal-combustion cars, stopped burning fossil fuels, stopped slash-and-burn deforestation, would the carbon dioxide we each exhale individually be pollution or merely a part of the natural equation of life on earth?
W. C. Fields decried drinking water because "Fish [procreate] in it." They also [defecate] in it. Pooping in the water may be aesthetically offensive, but it isn't polluting unless it is harmful. There has never been any evidence linking fecal water contamination to overboard discharge except when the boats are densely packed in enclosed waters. The same dynamic is at play with air quality in a crowded room, but step outside and you can breathe in the same spot for 100 years without degrading the air around you.
Am I advocating overboard discharge? Most of the time it is the only reasonable way for the small boat to deal with excrement, and most of the time direct discharge represents the least risk to both crew and environment. If your boat has sufficient electrical power, an onboard treatment system might be better for the environment, but not one that uses formaldehyde or chlorine. The residue of these sanitizing agents is, according to scientific study, more harmful to marine life than the raw sewage.
The real sources of fecal pollution are municipal sewage systems and agricultural runoff. Sewage spills are reported regularly in the newspapers, including today:
U.S.Virgin Islands -- A St. Croix pumping station has malfunctioned a second time in a week, pumping thousands of gallons of chlorine-treated sewage into the Caribbean Sea since Friday, officials confirmed Monday.
In a seemingly endless repetition of "accidents," municipalities pump hundreds of millions of gallons of raw sewage into the waters every year. The impact of agricultural runoff--including the fertilizer you use on your lawn--is greater still. Agreeing that flushing your head contributes to the problem is no different to saying that breathing contributes to bad air. We should quit making that concession.
Allowing boat toilets to be painted as contributors to water pollution only deflects attention from the real problems. Rhode Island recently petitioned the EPA to allow the designation of the entire state as a No Discharge Zone (NDZ), an overwhelmingly popular measure that was granted with hardly a whimper from boaters. It may help the fortunes of public officials lacking the courage to take on the state's real pollution issues, but it will not improve the water quality in Rhode Island.
Overboard discharge may be a crime against the state, but it is not a crime against nature. I don't think there is any question that conscientious direct discharge--one flush at a time--is better for the planet than disposing of 30-gallons of concentrate. Conscientious discharge means you never discharge your head in an enclosed basin, into sluggish waters, or when another boat is close enough to hear you flush.
It takes organization and money to fight discharge laws. It only takes enlightenment and will to ignore them.
It is your water, too. If you think I'm wrong, show me the evidence.
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