[xort]

I just read a post elsewhere regarding the waste rules for boats visiting Canada. Here is what the website, Visitor Information - Office of Boating Safety - Design, Equipment & Boating Safety - Marine Safety - Marine Transportation - Transport Canada , says:

Sewage Restrictions

Help Keep Our Waterways Clean
There are restrictions against pumping sewage into all waters with the province of Ontario and some interior lakes of British Columbia and Manitoba. In these areas, a pleasure craft fitted with a toilet must also be fitted with a holding tank and if fitted with a piping system that allows the discharge of sewage directly overboard, then this discharge must be visibly disconnected. Sewage may only be discharged at shore pump-out facilities.
Portable Toilets
Portable toilets are illegal on Ontario waters.
The owner of a pleasure craft shall ensure that each toilet and the holding tank(s) is/are installed so that;

• The toilet and equipment are connected in such a manner that the equipment receives all toilet waste from the toilet.
• Equipment designed for the storage of human excrement is provided with a deck fitting and such connecting piping as is necessary for the removal of toilet waste by shore-based pumping equipment.
• No means of removal of toilet waste is provided other than the means mentioned above.
• All parts of the system for removal of toilet waste are congruent with one another and the boat.

Sounds like composting toilets, like an Airhead, are illegal.

Also, sounds like a locked Y-valve is no longer acceptable. You need to pull the hose from the thru-hull?


Looks like I'll be keeping my tourist dollars in the US this summer. I'm not fighting with the head hoses and risk having to replace them. What do coastal cruisers in Canada who have a lectrasan or who want to go offshore three miles do?

 

[JohnRPollard]

On our boat, it would be even more complicated than that. Not only would we have to disconnect the hose going from the y-valve to the thru-hull for direct discharge, but the requirement that

"No means of removal of toilet waste is provided other than the means mentioned above"

would mean that we'd have to eliminate our separate system that can discharge the contents of the holding tank overboard via a macerator pump and dedicated thru-hull.

 

[AjariBonten]

So, a potty chair on the dive platform is out heh?

 

[xort]

Potentially, 2 heads means disconnecting 4 hoses.
I have 2 hoses I'll have to pull.
The aft head hose is the Trident 101 which slips on and off RELATIVELY easily. But I am putting Sealand odorsafe on the forward discharge line. That hose is much more difficult and the seacock is in a very difficult spot to reach. The hose cost me over $100. The other end is at the syphon loop behind cabinetry, also difficult to reach.

 

[Faster]

These new restrictions are for landlocked waters, and as I understand it we barely avoided such measures on the outer coasts as well.

There was a considerable movement afoot once the intended guidelines were released a couple of years ago.. the coastal requirements have been eased considerably. The original proposals would have meant that everyone cruising the BC coast would have had to go outside Vancouver Island to get enough distance from "any shore" to empty the holding tank. I think it's been eased to 3 or 5 miles now, allowing those cruising the inside passages to at least have a chance to be in compliance.

But I expect that there's more to come in this department.

 

[Pogo-2]

I go to Canada several times during the summer, so I've removed all piping and the Y valve associated with direct discharge of waste from my Newport 30. The question came up as to what would happen if everything just remained in the boat and the valves were just shut off. I was told the Canadians could inpound your boat, and you could be subject to a $5000.00 fine. Sorry I don't even want to find out the answer. Its not a big deal about getting pumped out, where we go in Canada if you stay at least for 2 days they will pump you out for free.

 

[xort]

fast
OK, I see the Ontario & interior water designation. I'm on the Great Lakes. Looks like I'll be skipping the trips to Canada. Way too much hassle with my setup.

 

[winterbuoy]

If this is true then I would say that almost every boat at our club is in violation of this rule. That would be about 300 boats of every size. Also the boats at the club next to us would have problems as well as I have been aboard a few of them. Is this a new rule? I have never heard around the docks of anyone being hassled as long as the Y valve is closed to the overboard side. As long as it’s locked with a cable strap from what I’ve heard. If true, it’s the stupidest rule I’ve heard and just another attack on boaters. Where we are, in West Toronto, there is a huge treatment plant about 2 miles away. Every time there is a big rain storm this plant can’t handle the amount of water and raw sewage is discharged into Lake Ontario, like thousands of gallons, I’ve seen it happen many times and the smell is very bad. Now how many boats would have to discharge that amount I wonder from just one incident?

 

[Faster]

That's typical of the lawmakers' knee jerk reaction to environmental pressures and that fact that "yachties" are an easy target.
Victoria BC also discharges vast amounts of marginally treated sewage at a time when these kinds of rules are coming down hard on the relatively small boaters' contribution to the problem.

I think the factor that allowed the coastal regs to be eased was the lack of pumpout facilities available.. I don't think anyone really has an objection to being environmentally responsible, but the tools to comply should be readily available, and at reasonable (or no) cost (other than the equipment on board)

There are (understandably) designated no-discharge zones in popular small coves and parks - and most people do respect these especially if there are shoreside biffies available.

 

[Valiente]

I have never heard of this law and I am not in compliance with it as I have a diverter valve merely pointing at "tank". I am in Toronto. Everyone knows that the Great Lakes are "no discharge" (not that this stops cities with combined storm and sewer lines from overflowing during heavy rains to the fourth or fifth power in amounts of raw poo greater than that of every holding tank in the province), but I thought that our laws mirrored those of the States due to the "common waters" situation. Unlike some areas, there are pump-outs are almost every club and marina in the area.

Trust me, I am NOT undoing my head hoses. They'll have to pry my cold, dead hands off my Henderson pump first...which is not really the way I wanted to go out in the first place!

 

[winterbuoy]

I'm not changing my setup either, they can P**S up a rope for all I care. Stupid is as Stupid does. ( or some thing like that) :laugher :laugher

 

[Keldee]

Well!!!!!I am just utterly appalled at the attitude of so many people to polluting the waterways! I really enjoy being able to swim in clean water off the boat and get very annoyed by people who are too lazy or cheap to go to a pump.These very same people think nothing of spending a fortune buying fancy schmanzy electronic gear for their boat but thumb their nose at the environment.Shame on you!!!!!!
Ellinor

 

[AjariBonten]

Well!!!!!I am just utterly appalled at the attitude of so many people to polluting the waterways! I really enjoy being able to swim in clean water off the boat and get very annoyed by people who are too lazy or cheap to go to a pump.These very same people think nothing of spending a fortune buying fancy schmanzy electronic gear for their boat but thumb their nose at the environment.Shame on you!!!!!!
Ellinor

You are way off base.

Nobody is promoting pumping overboard where they shouldn't.

They are ranting about stupid regulations that say they need to remove hoses; when a simple method of locknig a through-hull would suffice.

 

[Keldee]

I was once next to a boat belonging to a lawyer from Cleveland Ohio on the Erie Barge Canal and he bragged that although he had a holding tank is remains in pristine condition as he diverts every pee and poop directly overboard .I hope he is not the norm amongst my American neihbours.
Ellinor

 

[AjariBonten]

He's an idiot.

 

[AjariBonten]

a lawyer

No Comment

 

[bljones]

Here's the law:

DISCHARGE OF SEWAGE FROM PLEASURE BOATS

I think a locked diverter would be fine. The key phrase is 4(c)- "no other means"- if the diverter is permanently closed, then there is "no other means" to discharge waste other than a pump out.

 

[sailortjk1]

I thought the nornmal practice was to close the thru-hull and remove the lever. That has always been accepted around my area. Maybe Canada is being stricter but I would think Val and the others would know best.

 

[AdamLein]

... thumb their nose at the environment.

Last couple of times I went sailing, the environment had a go at killing me and my friends. First it broke my tiller and then it tried to freeze us to death. It did its best to keep me from getting home, and just as were getting close, it turned off the lights. And don't get me started about how it keeps trying to grow on my hull. Besides, the environment poops on my deck all the time... if you can't take it, environment, don't dish it out.

Look, I like clean water too. I love to swim! And I always save my precious poo for the hungry hungry pump out pumps. But the environment -- the more you pretend that you and the environment are buddy-buddy, the more likely it is to jump out from behind a bush and maul you.

Screw the environment!

p.s. Keldee that water you love to swim in? Fish piss in it.

 

[winterbuoy]

Exactly, I would never discharge into the Lake, only a pig would do so. But I am getting very sick of boaters getting blamed for Lake pollution, especially sailboats. They pick on us because they are either stupid, envious or jealous, or all three. You can swim beside your boat at the dock? Now I'm envious! Moving up there!