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Subject: Re: TWL: Lectrasans and Saxton Bill
From: M. Kenneth McQuage (tobyboat@XXX.XXX)
Date: Mon Apr 01 2002 - 19:32:56 EST
> There is enough stuff from agriculture and industry. As boaters we should
be doing all that we can to protect our aquetic environment.
>
Bob,
I really think that the uneven enforcement of EPA requirements
implied by your post correctly identifies the crux of the matter and
results in much of the backlash by boaters against the use of holding tanks
et al .
Much of the appeal of boating is individualistic - thus we are
certainly far from the organizational effeciency of the agri industry,
municipalities- or other industry - as evidenced by their success in
lobbying to exclude themselves from such requirements - by delays , threats
etc.
In short boaters get shortchanged - almost accross the board - the
Coast Guard is underfunded , NOAA has no money to upgrade our charts - or to
take soundings more than once every 50 to 75 yrs , maintance of Channels
used by recreational boaters by dredging is often on the lowest of the
priority list , the money collected through boating taxes of various sorts
is often mis spent , enforcement of boating laws is uneven at best - yet
the chicken houses + pig farms + dairy farmers + industry + municipalities
etc
continue to dump in large amounts of **** ---- but I gotta put in a
holding tank - or get fined as an individual .
As you know I am preparing another boat to go down the Ohio River if
possible this June - and was reading the warnings against consumption of
fish from almost anywhere along the Ohio -- Boaters did not polute this
river - yet are made to feel as if they are somehow responsible for it's
condition - because they don't have a holding tank -- and they better darn
well get one - or get fined - as an individual ..
Also heard a brief anouncement on TV the other day directed at
parents - instructing them to keep their kids inside to play on days of bad
air quality especially if they were asthmatic - which is as you know is on
the rise to epidemic proportions ( every county in Md rates an F from the
Am Lung Assn ) ... The anouncement didn't say a darn thing
about getting in touch with your politicians to get the air cleaned up ---
but the boater better darn well put in a holding tank or ...
Such is the reality of our political process - the organized get over
on the unorganized -- but the suggestion that the environmental
organizations are in any way equal in funding or power - to the
organizations of poluters -
as has been suggested - is way way off base .
All the Best
Ken ( environmental wacko )
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