Puget Sound could become no-sewage discharge zone



SEATTLE -- Boaters would be prohibited from releasing sewage -- treated or untreated -- into Puget Sound, under a new proposal by the Washington Department of Ecology, the Kitsap Sun reported.

Current rules allow sewage to be discharged in most areas of the Sound after being treated in an approved "marine sanitation device." That practice would end for recreational and commercial vessels if the proposal is approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.


Under the federal Clean Water Act, states lack authority to regulate sewage from vessels except within no-discharge zones. Environmentalists contend that discharge from boats pollutes the water and could contaminate shellfish.
The proposed no-discharge zone would include all inland waters south of the Canadian border and east of Dungeness Spit.
Read more from the Kitsap Sun here.