• Watercraft pollution may lead to new rules
• Boating Impacts - Just fun on the Water?
• Motorboats Prohibited on Hult Reservoir
• Power Boats Will Soon Leave a Cleaner Wake
• Outboard Motors Major Polluters
• Who to Contact

In Polluting for Pleasure (W.W. Norton & Company, 1993) author Andre Mele states that in a technical paper prepared for the Society of Automotive Engineers two outboard motor industry employees report "...a 70 horsepower outboard spews out 1,529 grams (3.37 pounds, or slightly more than half a gallon) of unburned hydrocarbons per average hour, based on the University of Wisconsin's duty-cycle studies". He then speculates on the fuel use of such a motor and concludes that, assuming it is 5 to 6 gallons an hour, "...at the very least 1/12th, or 8.3 percent, of supplied fuel and lubricating oil is blown out unburned."

Mele then discusses an EPA report that concludes "...two-stroke outboard motors pass fully 25 percent of their total hydrocarbon intake, fuel and lubricating oil, out the tailpipe and into the environment." The E.P.A. has also reported that in one hour an outboard powered boat emits, on the average, as many pollutants as an automobile does in 700 miles of driving. Outboard motors used recreationally last for decades. Fiberglass boats are virtually indestructible. Every year we are adding significantly to what might very well be an environmental catastrophe in the making.

Emissions standards for outboard motors were put in place several years ago. According to Earth Island Institute "These rules will accelerate the introduction of alternative cleaner outboard engine configurations (four-stroke engines, direct-injection two-strokes and engines with catalytic converters) starting in model year 1998, reducing the average HC emissions of new motors by 75% by 2006, after an absurdly lengthy eight-year phase-in. The regulations will be implemented through a system of tradable emission credits among manufacturers. However, the final rulemaking is highly favorable to industry and fails to sufficiently protect the marine environment from petrochemical discharges. While manufacturers had anticipated a complete ban on the sale of new carbureted two-strokes, the regulations instead effectively sanctioned their continued sale through the averaging provision. As a result, up to 15% of all new marine engines will be completely uncontrolled. In addition, there are no plans to institute a retirement or buy-back program for the 12 million carbureted two-stroke motors already in use. As a consequence, these motors will continue to pollute for up to years, the average life of a motor."

New Jersey FishNet is supported by the Cape May Seafood Producer's Association, The Family and Friends of Commercial Fishermen, the Fishermen's Dock Cooperative, Lund's Fishery, the National Fisheries Institute and Viking Village Dock.

Boats with electric motors will be allowed on Hult Reservoir west of Eugene. Other motorized watercraft will be prohibited under a new regulation adopted by the Oregon State marine Board. On May 16, the board adopted a rule, effective immediately, permitting only non-motorized or electric-powered craft.

The Bureau of Land Management, which manages the land around Hult Reservoir, requested the rule in an effort to protect wildlife habitat and quiet recreation. The 60-acre lake north of Hwy. 36 was previously a log pond. Because there are no developed boat ramps, boat use is limited to small hand-transported boats.

Labor Day crowds of motorboats on the Colorado River near Lake Havasu don't do air and water quality any good. A typical two-stroke outboard motor releases as many unburned hydrocarbons in one hour as a car engine does in 40 hours. Almost a third of the gasoline that goes through such outboards does not burn; it is vented into the water.

More than 12 million outboard motors operate in U.S. waters. In 1998, new Environmental Protection Agency regulations, framed with the cooperation of marine-engine manufactures will go into effect. They aim to reduce hydrocarbon emissions 75% by 2006. Today's two-stroke outboards are prime targets. Future two-strokes will be direct injection engines - a much cleaner design - or will be replaced by four-stroke engines.

It's a beautiful day on the lake. As a two-cycle outboard motor surges, a powerboat and tethered skier leap forward to race atop the water in a scene that for many Americans is synonymous with summer. In the wake, silent and unheeded, a film of unburned gasoline and lubricating oil, perhaps as much as one-third of all the fuel that passes through the motor, spreads out on the surface of the lake.

The fact that recreational powerboats are spraying gas and oil into the water is not in dispute. But at the heart of a recently joined debate between the power boat industry and environmentalists are two questions: How much pollution is created by recreational motorboats each year? And what, if any, harm is done to the environment?

How these questions are answered by the Environmental Protection Agency, which is expected to issue standards for marine engine emissions this fall under the Clean Air Act, may have profound effects on the design and cost of products sold by the recreational boating industry.

"I don't think anybody realized the level of emissions that are coming from these outboard motors," said John German, the project manager for the EPA's Non-road Engine and vehicle Emission Study, completed in 1991. "Quite frankly, we were astounded by what we found."

The study concluded that non-road engines, those on lawn mowers, chain saws, ski mobiles, boats and other equipment, contribute more than 19% of the hydrocarbons, 15% of the nitrogen oxides and 14% of carbon monoxide released in the nation's air each year. The study did not break down the amount contributed by each engine category.

"The problem you have with two-stroke engines is that a third of the gasoline goes through unburned," German said.

In his book "Polluting for Pleasure," Andre Mele, a former boat designer who lives in Kingston, N.Y., estimated that 150 million to 420 million gallons of unburned fuel are exhausted into the environment each year by the nation's 12 million gas-powered pleasure boats. Mele, who belongs to the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, writes that pleasure boats produce as much airborne hydrocarbon pollution each year as all the cars, trucks and buses in America.

Gregory Proteau, a spokesman for the National Marine Manufacturers Association, a trade group based in Chicago, said: "His overall conclusion is a little bit late in that the industry has been working toward a cleanup for years. I don't think there's any question that the author is well-intentioned, but we think that his research is just not up to snuff and that he doesn't give credit where credit is due." Proteau said that outboard motor makers are studying direct injection two-cycle engines that he called 60% to 80% cleaner than today's models, but that they are awaiting the EPA emissions regulations before investing in factories. Once the targets are set, he said, older outboard designs could be phased out within three to five years.
 

Who to contact:  Lane County Commissioner Anna Morrison, 125 E. 8th, Eugene, Oregon 97401,  - e-mail: anna.morrison@co.lane.or.us Heceta Water District Board Chair: Ted Condo, 87845 Hwy. 101, Florence, OR 97439 City of Florence Mayor: Alan Burns, P.O. Box 340, Florence, OR 97439