The Department of Energy and Environmental Protection is reminding boaters that Long Island Sound is a designated “No Discharge Area” and that onshore pumpout facilities should be used to remove sewage.
With the approval of the Environmental Protection Agency, Connecticut designated the sound waters a No Discharge Area in 2007 and New York followed suit in 2011. The designation forbids boaters from discharging treated or untreated sewage into the sound.
“We ask all boaters to honor the requirements of the ‘No Discharge Area’ that has been established in Long Island Sound in order to help improve water quality and the public health,” said DEEP Commissioner Daniel C. Esty. “Discharges of sewage from boats can have adverse effects on water quality and impair popular activities such as fishing, shellfishing and swimming.”
DEEP also has a Clean Vessel Act Program requiring vessels to use sewage holding tanks which can be emptied at pumpout facilities. The state’s pumpout program began in 1993, one year after Congress passed the Clean Vessel Act to increase the number of sewage disposal facilities. DEEP says these measures have helped to reduce pathogens and nutrients harmful to the aquatic environment.
Visit this website for a directory of pumpout facilities along the Connecticut shoreline and this website for more information on the Clean Vessel Act.
