BY SKIP ALLEN, SR.

In late May, the relevant House and Senate committees approved passage of their respective versions of 2008’s Clean Boating Act (S. 2766 and H.R. 5949). If you were among the tens of thousands who called elected officials and urged approval, thank you. If not, what are you doing now that’s more important than trying to make sure these bills become law before Congress takes its Summer Recess?

Let me be perfectly clear about what will happen on October 1, 2008 if these bills don’t pass and reestablish the exemption that allows about 17 million recreational boaters to discharge water “incidental to normal operation” of vessels: It’s going to be really quiet along the waterfront.

Turn the key on your outboard, flip on your raw-water-cooled AC unit bail out your sailing dinghy and you, my friends, will be subject to paying the price–in this case a fine up to $32,000 per incident for being in violation of a 1973 EPA ruling.

Now, I don’t like pollution and I don’t like people who pollute the waterways, but we aren’t talking about pollution such as oil, sewage and garbage–that’s already regulated. No, this is a legal snafu that puts the bilge water that drips from your shaft seals or deck runoff from rain or cleaning in the same “pollutant” category as tons of ballast water picked up by a commercial ship in one ocean and deposited in a distant harbor, along with any potentially harmful organisms that hitched a ride, which was the original point of the lawsuit that brought on this mess.

Passage of the Clean Boating Act of 2008 will give the legal eagles time to draft permanent legislation that permits such incidental things as cooling water and anchor washdown, while determining if some other things need tighter controls, or filtering, for example, before the water is discharged.

I like writing letters to government types–it’s hard to ignore a stack of mail on a subject and I think it gets attention. The address for U.S. Senators and Representatives are usually in your local telephone book or go to senate.gov and click on SENATORS and names, addresses and phone numbers of all 100 appear, sortable by name, state or party. The same thing is available for REPRESENTATIVES at house.gov.

Urge legislators to put S. 2766 and or H.R. 5949, both called The Clean Boating Act of 2008, on the fast track for passage.

Let the official know you are one of 17 million U.S. boat owners who will be required to obtain an EPA permit to operate his or her boat after September 30, 2008. If they hedge on support, ask if they can help you obtain the permit. That should be fun, they haven’t been printed yet nor have the fees for them been determined.

You can keep up with the latest action on this front by logging on to boatblue.org.