Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32NOVEMBER 2016 • FOGHORN 23 gplink.com Put Your Fleet at Your Fingertips gplink_halfpage.indd 1 1/14/2015 3:37:02 PM LEGISLATIVEREPORT By Ed Welch, PV A Legislative Director Puget Sound May Be the Next No Discharge Zone T hroughout the nation, more and more bodies of water on which PVA vessels operate are being designated as No Discharge Zones for treated sewage. Earlier this year, Washington State advised the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of its intent to declare the entirety of Puget Sound plus the fresh waters of Lakes Washington and Union as a No Discharge Zone. The EPA is accepting public comments on the Washington State petition until December 7 of this year. If your vessel operates in a No Discharge Zone (NDZ), it is illegal to release into the waters any sewage effluent, even if it has been treated by a Coast Guard-approved Marine Sanitation Device (MSD). The federal Clean Water Act generally permits a vessel to discharge treated sewage effluent, provided that it has been processed through a Coast Guard-approved MSD. However, there is one big caveat: Section 312 of the Clean Water Act (section 1322 of title 33 United States Code) allows for a state (with EPA’s assent) to designate a No Discharge Zone in which even treated sewage discharges are prohibited. Typically, a state applies to EPA for a NDZ designation for a particu-