| OSMB News |
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| First Ever Upland Pumpout Facility Seen to Fruition |
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For Immediate Release -8/26/09
It was late 2004 when Marl Carter, General Manager for Staff Jennings in Eugene, contacted the Marine Board to discuss the concept of a regional pumpout that could be used by trailered motorboats. For years, boaters who wanted Staff Jennings to winterize their boats had to be turned away if they had full holding tanks. This proved frustrating for boaters and for Staff Jennings.
So, Marl contacted the Marine Board with his idea: a centrally located and land-based boat waste pumpout where trailered boats could empty their holding tanks.
With only one pumpout located at Fern Ridge Reservoir (at Richardson Park) to serve eight major waterbodies -plus the Willamette River, it seemed to Marl that the need was certainly there for more waste collection facilities. Plus, RV dump sites are not suitable because they function based on gravity discharge whereas a suction pump is needed to remove waste from boats holding tanks. He knew it was unlikely that very many boaters would go out of their way to stop at Fern Ridge and re-launch their boat just to use the pumpout. Marl met with the Northwest Outboard Trailer Sailors (NOTS) boating club to explore the need for such a facility. With positive feedback from NOTS members, OSMB worked to persuade the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, who administers the Clean Vessel Act funds, to approve a demonstration project to see if the concept would work. Marl supported the effort with a letter-writing campaign tapping into local boaters, law enforcement, boat dealers, and boating clubs to support the construction of an upland pumpout. By late 2006, the Marine Board received approval from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to begin the project. The challenge was finding a good location with easy access for boaters coming off the water but not too far out of their way to be inconvenienced. Marl suggested the Lane County Sewage Treatment Plant, located on River Avenue, in Eugene. It already had an RV collection site. When Marl heard of the design plans, he started to think, “This could really be something…with stairs, an ADA accessible ramp and a deck that’s the right height to access the boat deck fitting, what a benefit for boaters!”
The Marine Board approached the City of Springfield to discuss the project. The addition of a boat waste pumpout station would not change the existing layout or use of the RV dump station that both RV and boaters could use. A fantastic service for RV drivers pulling their boats…one-stop dumping! The city agreed that it made sense to add a boat pumpout to the existing RV dump station and asked the Marine Board to work with an intergovernmental entity called the Metropolitan Wastewater Management Commission (MWMC). In 2008, the MWMC would ultimately submit the grant application to the Marine Board for the upland pumpout in Eugene.
The demonstration CVA project timeline was established for three years (2009-2011); the first year, construction would take place and educating boaters about availability; second year, publicize and measure use and the third year; continue outreach and promote the easy access by vehicle to this pumpout.
In 2008 the Marine Board approved $20,000 of state boater funds combined with $60,000 in federal Clean Vessel Act funds and $10,000 of in-kind contributions for a project total of $90,000 to MWMC.
“If it weren’t for Marl posing his simple question five years ago, this facility would not exist,” says Janine Belleque, Boating Facilities Grant Coordinator for the Marine Board. “Marl got us motivated to explore a project we hadn’t handled before and one that made sense on so many levels. Without his leadership, perseverance and determination, we would not have had much of a case to compete for the federal dollars. This is the first upland boat pumpout of its kind and we encourage all boaters who have holding tanks or portable toilets to use it. It’s free and it’s in a great location for easy access.” Belleque adds.
Marl says, “It took a long time to get this project going and it’s been my baby. Now it’s finally here.”
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