Holding tanks - is anyone serious?

Hydrozoan said:
You may care to take a look at "Waste water treatment in the United Kingdom – 2012. Implementation of the European Union Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive – 91/271/EEC” (https://www.gov.uk/government/uploa..._data/file/69592/pb13811-waste-water-2012.pdf) from which the following quotes are taken:

“The Directive required secondary treatment for agglomerations greater than 15,000 p.e. by the 31 December 2000 and at that date the UK was 90% compliant with the requirement. By the end of 2007 the UK was 99.9% compliant.”

“Although the Directive requires secondary treatment of discharges to coastal waters from agglomerations above 10,000 p.e., in England and Wales secondary treatment has generally been provided for coastal discharges from agglomerations between 2,000 and 10,000 p.e.”

(Note: p.e. – population equivalent; secondary treatment – to biologically break down and reduce residual organic matter.)

PS I don't know about the current positions and p.e.'s for the specific discharges mentioned by DJE, but the report confirms, I believe, the general point which Searush was making about pre-treatment of marine discharges.
Click to expand...
10,000 population equivalent can mean a summer population of 30,000, and that's an awful lot of sewage. coming out of one pipe.
The clean beach malarkey is only relevant within about 100m of shore.
 
FullCircle said:
Apropos of not much, we fitted an 80 litre holding tank and a Dometic Vacuflush electric heads this year fr our trip to the Netherlands.

Because our flush is as little as 0.6 litres, our holding tank lasted a week between the 2 of us on board plus guests for drinkies.
We went to 4 separate location between Middelburg and Zierikzee and all of them mysteriously were awaiting spare parts. So we never actually got to empty our tank by pump out.

As Lazy Kipper alluded, our pump out is very liquid.

I was quite chuffed that the system worked efficiently, and the pump out time was quicker than I had anticipated.
Click to expand...
was it a slick system when you eventually mtd it
 
lw395 said:
10,000 population equivalent can mean a summer population of 30,000, and that's an awful lot of sewage. coming out of one pipe.
The clean beach malarkey is only relevant within about 100m of shore.
Click to expand...

Not quite sure what you're saying here - my point was that your earlier post about untreated sewage being routinely discharged:

lw395 said:
Emptying your tank at sea is basically cutting out the middle man, as in many places the sewage is still dumped in the sea untreated.
Click to expand...

does not represent the current situation, which reflects the action taken to comply with the European Union Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive. Would you agree?
 
Hydrozoan said:
Not quite sure what you're saying here - my point was that your earlier post about untreated sewage being routinely discharged:



does not represent the current situation, which reflects the action taken to comply with the European Union Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive. Would you agree?
Click to expand...

Just back from Ireland-a member of the EU.

Arklow is an open sewer.

Richards-and worse-floating down the river on the ebb.

The Marine Museum curator was scathing about the local government unable to resolve the issue after 21 years.

As an aside, I am an experienced angler, with several specimen Grey Mullet to my name-3 over 7 pounds in weight.

The Mullet in Arklow are Giants-record breakers.

I wonder if there is a connection............................
 
rotrax said:
Just back from Ireland-a member of the EU ...
Click to expand...

My point is that it cannot be said that sewage in the UK is routinely discharged to sea untreated, as Searush noted back in post #17 - see the report linked in my post #38 - and that has been in large part because of UK actions to comply with the treatment requirements of the EU Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive. So arguing against holding tank legislation in the belief that a lot of UK sewage is routinely discharged to sea without treatment is unlikely to be very effective.

As to your mullet, I well remember the occasion of a good mackerel catch near the (then) sewage sludge disposal ground in Liverpool Bay (long before sludge disposal ended - in 1998, I think).
 
FullCircle said:
Apropos of not much, we fitted an 80 litre holding tank and a Dometic Vacuflush electric heads this year fr our trip to the Netherlands.

Because our flush is as little as 0.6 litres, our holding tank lasted a week between the 2 of us on board plus guests for drinkies.
We went to 4 separate location between Middelburg and Zierikzee and all of them mysteriously were awaiting spare parts. So we never actually got to empty our tank by pump out.

As Lazy Kipper alluded, our pump out is very liquid.

I was quite chuffed that the system worked efficiently, and the pump out time was quicker than I had anticipated.
Click to expand...

On our Netherlands cruise, we also went to the places you mention. As there were only two of us, our 80-litre tank only needed pumping out once, but this was no problem - it was done free of charge at Kortgene. They would have charged if we hadn't spent the night there, but that's fair enough. A nice marina, but with Baltic boxes rather than finger pontoons. They take some getting used to - the only ones I know of in England are at Birdham Pool.
 
they are really 'anal about it over here in the USA and you can be fined if the plumbing system valves are not locked to prevent accidental overboard discharge. We have a holding tank and can pump directly overboard OR divert to the tank via a 'Y' valve. The tank can either be pumped out for free once a week by the marina's ' poop' boat, anytime for free by going on the fuel dock or we can go 3 miles out to sea (but another 8 miles to get to the inlet first ) and dump it by gravity.. Some local marinas even have DIY pumpout connections in every berth. When we lived on board a 47ft mobo we had a large tank for it's two loos and were pumped out every week in our berth, now we are not living on board our 36ft sailing boat, we get it done ad hoc but it gets used infrequently as we are just 20 yds from the bathhouse . Our 'Y' valve and overboard discharge seacocks are cable tied to prevent accidental discharge but we also have a kid's small beach bucket in the cockpit for use to avoid filling the tank by flushwaters after frequent peeing alone, it seems most here will pee overboard but otherwise claim only ever use the holding tank. A local boat returning from the Bahamas where pumpouts are rare if not non-existent was fine $400 by the local marine plod when they did a spot inspection just inside the 3 mile limit and the crew had not yet got around to redoing the cable ties even though nothing had been discharged. give somebody a uniform and a gun and a local rulebook to enforce... I Hear tell some crews pee in the sink not the heads and others use the cockpit drains

Then again every day at local HW I guess we smell the town sewage being dumped into the waterway somewhere relatively near although the city claims it is fully treated and wea re smelling nearby sulphur springs, yeah right!
 
Last edited:
As I sailed into Salcombe three years ago I was in awe of the golden sand beaches one after the other with children having the time of their lives paddling in the shallows.

Having stayed a few days, I vowed I would never return until I fitted a holding tank into my 26 footer.

Last year I entered Salcombe again with the smugness that this time 'it wasn't me'.

You're right, lets not wait for legislation, shame will do it.

So perhaps the RYA will come up with a pennant that indicates you are a 'clean' ship - could I suggest for starters a red diagonal cross defacing the coat of arms of the recently discovered Richard III !
 
Robin said:
they are really 'anal about it over here in the USA and you can be fined if the plumbing system valves are not locked to prevent accidental overboard discharge. ...
Click to expand...

That was what I expected. So I was surprised on my only visit to the Caribbean, in 2001, (admittedly the BVI, but they cater to Americans) to find that the flotilla yacht didn't have a holding tank. Very little tide there, either...

Mike.
 
816swim said:
As I sailed into Salcombe three years ago I was in awe of the golden sand beaches one after the other with children having the time of their lives paddling in the shallows.

Having stayed a few days, I vowed I would never return until I fitted a holding tank into my 26 footer.

Last year I entered Salcombe again with the smugness that this time 'it wasn't me'.

You're right, lets not wait for legislation, shame will do it.

So perhaps the RYA will come up with a pennant that indicates you are a 'clean' ship - could I suggest for starters a red diagonal cross defacing the coat of arms of the recently discovered Richard III !
Click to expand...

i got myself into a bit of a tangle in salcombe one summer when some oik with a large alsatian, not on a lead, let his dog defecate into the water my kids were swimming in.

perhaps the rya could do something about salcombe oiks.

as for holding tanks, generally i think they are a good idea but in terms of controlling ocean effluent i suspect that, as an environment improvement measure, it is as effective as providing doggy bags to the residents of devonport.
 
viago said:
i got myself into a bit of a tangle in salcombe one summer when some oik with a large alsatian, not on a lead, let his dog defecate into the water my kids were swimming in.
Click to expand...
That's disgusting. As a dog owner, my dog doesn't poo in the water, and if she poos on the beach I pick it up with a doggy bag. If you pick up a handful of sand at the same time, then no trace is left.
 
stevebrassett said:
That's disgusting. As a dog owner, my dog doesn't poo in the water, and if she poos on the beach I pick it up with a doggy bag. If you pick up a handful of sand at the same time, then no trace is left.
Click to expand...

i wish every dog owner was as considerate as you.

however, my point was that it's really about time that the rya started to support it's members for once instead of always backing the government agenda.
perhaps a new board is needed.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top