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News Release
RI Department of Environmental Management
235 Promenade Street, Providence, RI 02908
(401) 222-2771 TDD/(401) 222-4462
For Release: July 31, 2007
Contact: Gail Mastrati 222-4700 ext. 2402
Stephanie Powell 222-4700 ext. 4418

DEM AWARDS $127,500 IN FEDERAL FUNDS TO ADD SIX NEW BOAT SEWAGE PUMP-OUT FACILITIES
More Than $66,000 in Additional Funds Awarded for Repairs, Upgrades to Existing Facilities

PROVIDENCE - The Department of Environmental Management has awarded $193,782 in grants for new or upgraded marine pump-out facilities. The amount includes $127,500 for new pump-out facilities and $66,282 for repairs or maintenance to currently operating systems. Funding for the projects was provided to DEM through the federal Clean Vessel Act pump-out grant program, administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Each grant requires a 25 percent match.

These grant projects will add one new pump-out boat and five new stationary pump-out locations to the 11 pump-out boats and 48 shoreside facilities already available to boaters in Rhode Island waters. There are an estimated 54,000 boats that use Rhode Island waters each year, including more than 44,000 registered in Rhode Island.

The largest grant, $56,250, has been awarded to the East Providence Harbor Department for a new pump-out boat to service upper Narragansett Bay and the Metro Bay area. The 23-foot Northcoast Pump Clean, Pump-out boat, which began operating on July 31, is the first to service the Metro Bay area.

Fifteen thousand dollar grants have been awarded to the Jamestown Harbor Commission for a new pump-out facility at East Ferry, to Lavins' Marina, Inc. of Bullocks Cove in Barrington for a new pump-out facility, to the Barrington Yacht Club of Barrington for a new pump-out facility, and to Mazza Marine, L.L.C (Pointview Marina) of Wakefield for a new pump-out with holding tank. Smugglers Marina of Block Island was awarded $11,250 for a new pump-out station and sewer connection.

Grants for repairs and upgrades include $11,714 to Conanicut Marine Services, Inc. of Jamestown, $13, 318 to Harbor Light Marina, Inc. of Warwick, $15,000 to Hunt Yachts of Portsmouth, $15,000 to Bay Marina, Inc. of Warwick, and $11,250 to Newport Yacht Club of Newport.

Boaters have been prohibited from discharging sewage into Rhode Island waters since 1998, when Rhode Island became the first state in the country to receive a statewide "no discharge" designation from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Boat sewage can degrade water quality by introducing bacteria, pathogens, and chemicals, harmful to humans and marine life, and by introducing excess nutrients that stimulate algae blooms which deplete oxygen. Over the past nine years, DEM has been educating boaters about the law, boosting efforts to enforce the law, and working to assure a sufficient number of pump-out facilities for boaters' convenience.

To date, DEM has awarded close to $800,000 in Clean Vessel Act funds for pump-out facilities to make it convenient for boaters to dispose of boat sewage properly.

For further information, contact Joseph Migliore at DEM's Office of Water Resources, at 222-3961 ext. 7258 or via e-mail at joseph.migliore@dem.ri.gov.

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