New rules expected to cost big

Each fall, Mac Cooper’s Avondale Boat Yard in Westerly hauls about 100 boats out of the Pawcatuck River and pressure washes each, removing organic buildup and a bit of paint.
“Of course, when you pressure wash the organic growth off the bottom of the boat, you’re also pressure washing off some of paint,” Cooper said. “And that paint has anti-fouling properties – copper primarily is the active ingredient in bottom paint.”
Until now, the wastewater from that process has been treated as runoff by storm-water permits, but by Dec. 31, 2008, every marina in Rhode Island will have to recycle wastewater from pressure washing. That’s when the R.I. Department of Environmental Management will enforce new recycling regulations, handed down from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s U.S. Clean Water Act.
It will likely cost the estimated 150 Rhode Island marinas and boatyards between $35,000 and $50,000 each to put recycling systems in place during 2008, estimated Mike Keyworth, owner of Brewer Cove Haven Marina in Barrington and the legislative chair for the R.I. Marine Trades Association.
Keyworth organized three seminars in 2007 for marina owners to meet with DEM and EPA officials. There, they got a first-hand look at what to expect with the new regulations.
The regulations fall under the U.S. Clean Water Act that the EPA has used since 1972 to regulate industries. For the marine industry, the recycling regulations are the result of the Act’s 2003 reauthorization, which created the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES), said Larry Wells, EPA New England compliance assistance coordinator.
Under the NPDES regulations, marina owners have three options: to collect and recycle the wastewater on-site, have it carted away as a hazardous waste or collect it and have it sent to the public wastewater facility.
“But one of the issues with the marinas is that they’re all site-specific,” Wells said. “They all can be different in terms of how they’re configured, where it might be desirable for them to do their pressure-washing, how much space they have to work with. So the approach that they take is going to vary.”
And some marina owners are concerned they will choose the wrong option. “I suspect that if you just flipped a coin and chose one of the options, you might have a fair possibility of making a wrong decision,” Keyworth said.
If marinas choose to recycle on-site, which Wells said will likely be the choice for most, the owners have to make a decision about which brand of recycling system to install. Those systems aren’t necessarily proprietary for the marine industry. Many of them were developed for the metal-manufacturing and car-wash industries, said Steve Wood, owner of Stone Cove Marina in Wakefield. So the systems might not be equipped to handle heavy material like seaweed and barnacles.
Those systems have two parts: an asphalt drainage “pad” and a recycling terminal.
“Dependent on how big a marina you have and how many boats you deal with, the pad could go anywhere from $8,000 to $20,000,” said Wood, who has already installed a 30-foot-by-60-foot asphalt pad. The wastewater runs off it into catch basins, which will eventually feed a recycling terminal.
And the cost of that terminal could be between $25,000 and $40,000, or more, Keyworth said.
Larger industrial boat yards also will fall under the new regulations. Promet Marine Services Corporation, with an industrial boatyard on Allens Avenue in Providence, is building a proprietary recycling system, said Yard Manager Chris Braga. That yard hauls between 75-100 commercial ships out of the water each year.
“There is work involved, and there is cost involved,” he said. “But it doesn’t have to be a huge, elaborate thing. I think we have a handle on it.”
Now Promet has the ability to haul about three boats a day out of the water, but these regulations will slow the process, likely dropping that down to two per day, Braga said.
Another commercial-boat-services company, J.Goodison Company, doesn’t own its own facility. The company moves between other facilities, working where they are needed, said Jack Goodison, executive vice president. Because of that mobility, the company is already following the new regulations.
“When we power wash, we suck up the wastewater into a tanker,” Goodison said. For Cooper’s Avondale, with 96 slips and 75 storage spots, at least some of the costs associated with bringing in a recycling terminal will be passed on to customers
“When your cost increases, you have to raise what you charge,” said Cooper. “I haven’t gone that far down the line to see what it’s exactly going to be, but I’m assuming it’s going to be expensive.” •

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