grey waste marina policies

[blueglass]

Have been looking into marinas for a permanent berth in the South West, and note that several, e.g. Brixham, Plymouth, do NOT allow waste water from onboard showers, sinks etc to be discharged overboard. We have holding tanks for our heads but not for shower/sink water. This means you can use the heads but can't wash your hands afterwards! Seems a little excessive. I normally observe all environmental/green requirements on principle, but ...............
What do people do about his? Fit secondary holding tanks for grey waste? Is this policy strictly adhered to or is reasonable to avoid excesses? What do you think?

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

A bit of a b*****r that if you've got sinks with direct overboard discharges. The showers will normally discharge into a sump and you could flip the breaker to stop the pump from clearing it but probably the sump will be too small for even one shower's worth of water. I would just ignore it, you're not going to damage the environment. My guess is that half the boats in the marina wont even have a sewage holding tank anyway

 

[hlb]

Not heard of this and I'm in Plymouth. Big sign saying. Eer No pooing in sea, or whatever but nothing about sinks. Maybe you just have to be a bit surupticious!!!!

 

[adey]

Take a walk around the Barbican and see all the crud that's floating around. I think a few soap suds might actually help!

 

[blueglass]

Haydn,
It was Queen Anne's Battery Marina and Brixham marina brochures I saw this in. Maybe it's something MDL had to agree to to get planning permission. Impossible to enforce though (especially after dark!)

 

[blueglass]

Your probably right. Shower sump holds less than a bucketful before the pump kicks in so disengaging the pump is not an opton unless I want to turn my bilges and engine bay into large greywaste holding tank.

 

[hlb]

Theres sumate on the gate at Yacht Haven about not using bog, less holding tank I presume. But nowt else. Been in Brixham many times and QAB, just carried on as normal. Use HM pontoon in Brixham, cheaper, more fun and no signs at all there!!

 

[HeadMistress]

Do their restrictions specifically refer to gray water...or only to "waste" water in an effort to use a polite term for toilet waste? Or--if they actually use the term "gray water"--is it possible they've confused that term with "black water" (which happens a lot in my experience)?

It's entirely possible that a marina may have hired a "non-boaty" (or barely boaty, but managed to talk a good game to get hired) slip leasing person who's a bit fuzzy about the meaning of terms like "gray water" and has mis-used it...so before jumping to any conclusions, I'd ask whether they actually prohibit the discharge of water from sink and shower drains...or only from toilets.

 

[mirage]

As far as I can see in the Brixham Marina handbook, the only rule is:

Please Note, the use of marine toilets in the harbour is forbidden. This is a local bye-law and is strictly scrutinised.

Which considering the crap that comes out of Torquay Town Hall makes sense.

And some stuff about DEFRA regulations about galley waste.