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Photo Sue Harrison
Whale watch and fishing boats that dock in Provincetown Harbor could face restrictions on dumping in Cape Cod Bay if new proposal passes. |
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No discharge area proposed for Cape Cod Bay
Banner Daily Update posted Tues. June 5
By Pru Sowers
Banner Staff
PROVINCETOWN – Provincetown is joining a Cape-wide effort to have the entire Cape Cod Bay declared a no discharge area, meaning commercial and recreational boats would not be allowed to empty their septic tanks into the bay even if they are beyond the legal three-mile limit.
The proposed designation would have an impact on Provincetown’s commercial fishing and whale watching industries, which routinely dump their tanks in open waters beyond the allowed three-mile limit from shore. The proposal would require them to pump their sewage into a holding tank on MacMillan Pier, where it would be released into the municipal sewer system during non-peak times.
Provincetown Harbormaster Rex McKinsey is working with the state Office of Coastal Zone Management (CZM), the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies (PCCS), the state Department of Environmental Protection and the federal Environmental Protection Agency to gather information for a request to the EPA for a no discharge designation. Ten other Cape Cod towns are involved with the effort, as well.
“This is the water we swim in,” McKinsey said. “This is the water we eat out of. Anything we can do to assist that water quality will help. We shouldn’t be discharging untreated water into our water.”
Whale watching boats in Provincetown would likely feel the greatest local impact if they had to return to MacMillan Wharf to dump their septic tanks. Steve Milliken, president of the Dolphin Fleet, has three boats, each with a 500-gallon septic tank. In the height of the season, he said, his company runs between seven and nine trips a day, with each boat usually pumping out their tank every trip.
However, Milliken said his boats never dump into the proposed no discharge area because whales are usually found outside of Cape Cod Bay. In addition, he said, most of what is pumped out of his boats’ septic tanks is seawater.
“We have a salt water system that is about 90 percent water. It’s really quite a minimal thing. I don’t really call it polluting. It’s letting out amounts of solid waste. The toilet paper is minimal,” Milliken said.
To read the full story see the June 7 Provincetown Banner.
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May 31st, 2007