Sheen on the water

[Cap Erict3]

You boys need to get around more.

Shop vac any oil off the surface of ur bilge. Replace oil sock.

Take oil and old sock to parts house, jiffy lube, mech shop, were ever real mechanical types bring used oil.

Oil eating micro robots not really required


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Looking for another pretty place to work on the boat.

[rhirwin]

Cottontop,

Would it be illegal for him to wash the topside of his boat at the marina with a dilute solution of dishwashing detergent?

[Cottontop]

Originally Posted by HopCar

Has anyone tried the oil eating microbes that are sold for getting oil out of water?

According to BoatUS, recreational boaters can use those products in their bilge, but are not allowed to use them on the water.

[Cottontop]

Originally Posted by rhirwin

Cottontop,

Would it be illegal for him to wash the topside of his boat at the marina with a dilute solution of dishwashing detergent?

If the authorities, notified perhaps by the marina, or neighbors in the marina, believe he is trying to hide a spill he didn't report properly to start with, they might treat him harshly.

I know some people in jail who were just too clever for their own good.

[S/V Illusion]

Originally Posted by thinwater

That would not be ethical to answer, my employer would not appreciate the call-out in this forum, and the question is basically rude. If you are in the industry (CWT sub B) you know me and can guess. If not, this is a pitch in the dirt.

No one has said what treatment is better than skimming to ordnance limits followed by POTW disposal.

Please broaden the discussion by presenting an alternative.

The below are standard limits from a typical city ordinance:

Prohibited discharges:

2.10 Limitations on Wastewater Strength.
(a) No person shall discharge wastewater containing in excess of:

Arsenic 0.35 mg/L
Cadmium 0.2 mg/L
Copper 2.0 mg/L
Cyanide 0.65 mg/L
Lead 1.0 mg/L
Mercury 0.01 mg/L
Nickel 1.0 mg/L
Silver 0.5 mg/L
Total Chromium 2.0 mg/L
Zinc 3.0 mg/L
TTO 2.13 mg/L
Formaldehyde 50.0 mg/L
Phenols 5.0 mg/L

• containing more than 300 mg/L of oil or grease of animal or vegetable origin, unless specifically approved by the District. The District may approve, on a case by case basis, a modification to the analytical method if the discharger can demonstrate that constituents in their wastewater interfere with the freon extraction procedure and have no negative impact on the POTW and/or receiving waters.

• containing more than 100 mg/L of oil or grease of mineral or petroleum origin;

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100 ppm is about 3 ml in a 5 gallon bucket. That is actually quite a lot, and if the waste is settled and skimmed it will be below that, unless emulsifying agents have been added. While the first wash might be an issue, after that I doubt it. But the sailor needs to judge how much oil is remaining after skimming. If you thinks it is horrible... then get out the check book.


But if we go crazy with expensive solutions, we simply encourage mid-night dumping and pumping while sailing, which is exactly what many posters suggest. The primary reason that fuels and used oil are NOT hazardous wastes is that most states believe reasonable rules are more productive.

None of which is relevant or responsive.
Was the failure to answer any of my questions an act of commission?

[CervezaE35]

Thank you folks, that's a lot of helpful info, I'm going to try to wet vac and de grease the bilge and wet vac again, hopefully I can get most of it gone so a flush of the bilge will work. I'm going to buy another bilge boom and toss the one I have. I didn't know about the fines so that makes it even more of an issue. Should have seen when I first got the boat, there was sludge in the bilge so thick that the pump would slip out of my hands in surprised the previous owner didn't have any issues with it. I'll look into some of the products listed here too. Hopefully I can get this cleaned up. Sure can't deal with a fine now and not too keen on environmental ramifications either.

[HopCar]

One way to limit how much oil you accidentally pump overboard is to use a Water Witch pump switch. It won't sense oil so it won't turn the pump on until water raises the oil higher than the switch. It then shuts the pump off before the oil drops low enough to be pumped out.
Water Witch Bilge Switch

I think the field sensor type switches will also do this.

[Nicholson58]

Originally Posted by valhalla360

Of course, the $64,000 question...what is proper disposal ashore?

Most marinas want nothing to do with your bilge water. If you call an environmental disposal company in, it's crazy expensive and they don't want to deal with a 2 gal bucket of water with a little sheen on the surface anyway. Generally speaking there is no reasonable way to "properly dispose" of it.

This is a classic example of the law of unintended consequences. The original goal was to stop someone changing thier oil by dumping the old oil overboard or a commercial ship that might dump hundreds of gallons when thier bilge pump goes on. Now it's going after a few drops that have no significant impact.

Not suggesting a course of action - just facts.

The oil needed to make a sheen is only parts of a drop. Very small amounts are easily handled by the bugs in the soil if the buckets were dumped in a dirt parking lot. No different than cooking grease in the septic tank. I have more oil than that on my driveway. The volume will be far less than is lost by a few autos driving by. After every rain, the roadway sheen heads for the shoulder.

I used to own several 40's & 50's antique outboards - now gone to the collectors for their restoration boats. You can't pull the cord on one of these without puking out oil & gas mix. Even on the Great Lakes that is ignored.

[Cottontop]

Originally Posted by Nicholson58

Not suggesting a course of action - just facts.

I used to own several 40's & 50's antique outboards - now gone to the collectors for their restoration boats. You can't pull the cord on one of these without puking out oil & gas mix. Even on the Great Lakes that is ignored.

Apparently the oil discharged by a "properly functioning engine" is exempt from regulation. 40CFR110.5(a).

[buzzstar]

So, If I understand the replies from the bureaucratic establishment correctly, we each might carry our own analysis kits on board, cause if we do not the the enviropolice are gonna get us, whether it be the Fed EPA, a state equivalent, or a local agency, each looking to increase their own fame and popularity with the support group of their choice. Maybe their revenue stream too. The standards, if one can call them that, were probably never examined for reality, just posted and adopted 'cause they sounded good, and would give the impression of a scientific source.

Yeah, we all really do agree clean water is good, cause we, and our children cruise in it, swim, and use it in many, many ways, but the rules as implemented and enforced by the useful idiots are -I am going to be kind- impractical and detrimental to the person who wants to do the right thing. There is an old word, rarely used nowadays because it sounds racist, although it definitely is not, but it does describe the level the environmentalists have reached: picayune. Most of the older folk may know it, but look it up if you do not, no matter your age.

[shufti]

You may want to put something like, I believe, Sorb-oils in the bilge. An oil attracting sponge in effect.

There are several (probably many with a bit of googling) products such as [I imagine] 'sorb-oils' is. I've tried a few no-name ones and a 3m product - they all seem pretty good at catching oil whilst letting the bildge pump do it's work. Don;t leave them in to long before replacement - they can get quite smelly.

[Tensen]

Originally Posted by Pelagic

Something as minor as you described is a silly PITA that you have to deal with.

Especially when it rains and a worse sheen from road drainage fills the marina basin.... That is accepted and ignored.

if still concerned, turn pump off, pressure wash bilge with soapy water.... get outside marina for a short cruise, pump out/rinse/ while hosing submersible pump and nothing should remain when you return to your pen.

The OP said he wants to be environmentally responsible - your suggestion doesn't match his needs.

[bletso]

The Coast Guard regularly cruises the bayous near Panama City FL looking for sheens and issue citations. They have been at it for years.

[Pelagic]

Originally Posted by Tensen

The OP said he wants to be environmentally responsible - your suggestion doesn't match his needs.

As others have said...a thimble of oil can produce a sheen on the water so one must keep a perspective on being environmentally responsible versus being anally pedantic as a PC police

His bilge was already clean but he was bothered by the small remaining residual.

One further clean and rinse with disposal underway has much less impact on the water than from the 2 cycle outboards used by the Martin Sheens of this world to police those who live and work on the water.