Your Action Is Urgently Needed To Pass The
Recreational Boating Act
As a
recreational boater you have always been exempted from the normal, miminal
operational discharges that your vessel deposits into the waterways.
Regretfully, a recent federal court
ruling cancelled this Clean Water Act exemption that recreational boaters
have long enjoyed.
While the ruling derived from a
lawsuit filed to prevent
large ocean-going ships from introducing damaging aquatic invasive species
into U.S. waters, the decision requires the US
Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) to implement a national discharge permit system for ALL vessels in US
waters, including recreational boaters. The
EPA
is working under a September 30, 2008 deadline for full implementation.
What Does This Mean For Recreational
Boaters?
If the permit system
becomes a reality, every recreational boater will be required to
pay for a state permit for each boat AND for each state the boat
enters.
What Can Be Done To Stop The Madness?
You
can take several steps!
1) Alert
your boating friends in Massachusetts and any other state by
sharing this message and urging them to take
action.
2) Write to the EPA before August
6th.
Tell them as respectfully as possible (remember,
EPA is operating under a
court mandate) that while keeping our waterways clean and preventing the
spread of invasive species is of utmost importance to all boaters,
imposing a complex
permitting system designed for industrial dischargers and applying it to
recreational boats will not yield significant environmental benefits
and it will come at a very high cost.
First, most boaters only use their vessels on weekends and in
the Northeast, just for several months per year. Second, boating is an affordable, family-friendly
form of recreation that is most attractive to people who do not have the
means to live on the water but are passionate about enjoying the water. A complex and
potentially costly permitting system would deny many boaters access to the
water for lack of extra funds to pay for permits and lack of time to interpret the
system. Finally, full implementation of a permitting system would be
economically devastating to small marine businesses, particularly in the Northeast
where the recreational boating industry depends on a small window of
success each boating season to survive year-round. Massachusetts alone has
1,200 small marine businesses, most of which are family owned and operated,
that contribute nearly $2 billion to the Commonwealth.
Please know that if
you choose to send your comments to EPA, they will become public record.
Send your correspondence via email to ow-docket@epa.gov and enter Docket ID No. OW-2007-0483 in
the subject line.
3) Call and write
to the Massachusetts Congressional Delegation!
Many
local and national boating organizations have been working to secure an
exemption for recreational boats.
Tell your elected officials that you want them to support and make
the Recreational Boating Act of 2007 (H.R. 2550) a top
priority. HR2550 is a
non-partisan bill that would protect recreational boats from being
swept into this unnecessary and expensive permitting system. It is
critically important that H.R. 2550 be
passed and the support of the Massachusetts Congressional Delegation is
essential.
Remember, BOATERS ARE VOTERS!
For more information, please feel free to contact nathalie.grady@boatma.com or click on the links
below. Thank
you for taking action to protect your freedom to boat! Click here to
easily send an email to your Members of Congress: http://www.boatus.com/gov/contact.asp
