Spilling Fuel Into the Water

Over time, engine oil will accumulate in your bilge and be discharged overboard with bilge water (which is illegal). Here are a few tips to avoid steep fines and preserve water quality:

• Schedule regular engine tuning to minimize the amount of oil that is released while checking for leaking seals, gaskets, or hoses.
• Purchase a non-spill pump if you change your own oil to draw crankcase oils out through the dipstick tube and capture drips with a plastic bag over the oil filters. You can hot drain the filter by punching a hole in the dome and letting it drain for 24 hours, then recycling the collected oil.
• Place a bio-remediation bilge boom or oil absorbent materials in the bilge.
• Place an oil absorbent pad under the engine and replace absorbent materials regularly.
• Find contractors or marinas that offer a bilge pump out service to prevent accidents and spills.
• Don’t treat oily water with detergents as soaps will pollute and make proper clean up impossible. You may even be fined up to $25,000 should you use soap to dissipate oil.

How you dispose of oil absorbent materials will depend on the type of product you’ve used and how you used it:

• Standard Absorbents Saturated With Gasoline – These may be air dried and used again.
• Standard Absorbents Saturated With Oil or Diesel – You can wring these out over oil recycling bins and reuse them. If you are going to dispose of them, you should double bag it with one plastic bag sealed inside of another and put in the regular trash.
• Bioremediation Bilge Booms – You may place these in your regular trash provided that they are not dripping with any liquid. Do not seal them in plastic bags because the microbes need oxygen to function.

Marine engines, especially 2-stroke outboard motors, produce the highest average level of hydrocarbon exhaust emissions (falling short of that produced by lawn and garden equipment). These particular emissions contribute to ground level ozone, creating a well-known health risk.

The following tips will help keep your engine operations as efficient as possible:

• Always follow the gas to oil ratio recommended by the engine manufacturer. If you use too much oil, you can negatively affect spark plugs and too little can cause engine wear or failure.
• Use premium, two-cycle engine oil, such as TC-W3 or TC-W4 to improve engine performance while reducing pollution.
• Use gasoline that contains the prescribed octane level as recommended by the engine manufacturer.

Without wax, the sun’s UV rays can quickly ruin the topsides of your boat. But with a layer of wax, you can increase durability, protect the gelcoat (if you own a fiberglass boat), and prevent oxidation that commonly robs your boat of its glossy, “brand new” appearance.

There’s a wide variety of commercial equipment you can purchase to prevent spills while reducing emissions. Some of our best recommendations include:

• Fuel/Air Separator – Install this along your vent line to allow air, but not fuel, to escape through a vent opening.
• Safety Nozzles for Portable Gas Cans – Safety nozzles automatically stop the flow of fuel once the outboard engines are full.
• Bilge Pump Switch – This prevents oil bilge water from being discharged while protecting the vessel’s bilge pump. The filter will remove oil, fuel, and other petroleum hydrocarbons that might be in the water.
• New Engine – Should you need a new engine, purchase one that is both fuel efficient and guarantees low emissions.
• Container for External Vent Fitting – This container will collect overflow and prevent overflow from entering the container. You can even use this overflow to add to the boat the next time you need to fuel.

If you ever have an oil or fuel spill, there are 3 basic steps you must take:

1. Before anything else, stop the flow.
2. After stopping the flow, contain the spill to the best of your ability.
3. Contact the U.S. Coast Guard National Response Center at (800) 424-8802.

Gas or diesel is commonly spilled during fueling, which can harm aquatic life, waste money, and cause stains on the hull and damage to the coat and striping. To avoid potential problems, follow these tips:

• Only fill tanks to 90 percent capacity because gas drawn from cool storage tanks will expand as the vessel warms.
• Use a sounding stick, listen to the filler pipe, and have a good awareness of your tank’s volume to ensure you never fill the tank to more than 90 percent capacity.
• Never fill your tank after returning to port. Instead, wait and fill it just before the next time you head out to sea. This reduces spills caused by thermal expansion because remaining fuel must be used before it is warmed up.
• Fill portable tanks onshore when possible to clean up spills much more easily.
• Use oil absorbent pads at all times to catch drops.
• Slow down when you first begin and are close to the end of fueling to maintain control over the entire process.