TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands BVI passes law to prohibit dumping of sewage from Yachts

The BVI is set to pass a law that boaters cannot dump sewage in BVI waters( defined as coastal waters) However there is no infrastructure to be able to do this and the BVI wants marinas and charter companies to bear the costs. I am not sure how you pump out the sewage from a typical tank in a yacht. For sure it will be a messy system.
Don't know how you can pass a law when there is no infrastructure to adhere to the law.

Link? In the esoteric, I think this is a good idea, but as you say, the devil is in the details.

Some tanks use a Y valve, one side for overboard and the other for the Holding tank. On this type you have to vacuum or pump out the waste.
On the other type the waste fills through the top of the tank and has a hose on the bottom which connects to a through hull fitting, when you open the through hull fitting the waste goes overboard. If it clogs you can pump it out from the deck fitting.
I’m sure the BVI government can come up with an easier way to the destroy the charter industry

Just pumped my holding tank out yesterday on my boat in DC...not a lot of fun. I would imagine the charter companies will just pump at the end of a charter and leave empty for next charter and have Y valve closed. Plenty of times we have had to have the charter company come out and blow compressed air up into the hull fitting to clear out clogs...not fun for them either...

They did water testing some time ago, but were waiting to release the specific results. All they said was there were some very polluted spots, but not necessarily where you might expect. My guess is they don't want to release the results unless they can announce "a plan" to deal with it. In the BVI, this counts as a plan.

@RatmansWife - How are they defining coastal waters? We are in the habit of dumping our holding tanks when we are out sailing for the day. Would that practice no longer be allowed?

Dumping sewage in coastal areas is already prohibited. We always make sure we are at least three miles out.

Pre-Irma, there were more liveaboards in Trellis Bay than you could shake a stick at. Most of them looked like they wouldn't make it to Sprat Point, let alone three miles out. Now there are some beat-up wrecks serving the same purpose.

One issue would be who pays. Unless it's free, there will be an incentive to cheat. Look at all the houses on Tortola with septic tanks leaking onto the road and no enforcement.

Bailau, the holding tanks on the boats are good for about 6 uses before emptying.

maybe your no. 2 is especially,large. On my 33’ boat the holding tank is 26 gallons.

A lot of the French mono hulls a use an 80 L (21gl)
They Reccomended pumping 25 times per flush of number two.
As for me my body is so purified that I don’t have to take a dump.

My 28' holding tank is 26 gallons...usually do mid season pump out and end of year before winterizing and usually get more uses. I strongly discourage guests #2 since I have to pump it out...

Great timing..one more thing for companies to worry about when they have no customers and no income..really? Now? Its not a bad idea but it is appalling timing..

This subject is several years old and predates Hurricane Irma and even back then it was considered a non-starter as there are no pumpout facilities. The plan back then was to get a couple of pumpout boats that would go around the anchorages. I'll believe that when I see it.

It also turns out that the big issue from a couple of months back regarding every boat in the BVI where the owners are not aboard to have an official local "Agent" was a non-starter as well.

Sitting here on a boat in the USVI....the BVI is becoming less and less appealing...

Yeah, you would think the government would eventually figure that out..

Zanshin The government wants the marine community to pay for and install the pump stations. And I do not know what their term coastal waters means. Is ti 2-3 miles from the shore? or what. I used to store in the tanks and dump when I was 3 miles out. Example leverick Bay would have great difficulty in getting rid of the sewage as there is not a sewage plant.

You are the OP and despite a request for the source of your information you have not provided. Please post a link to the source of your original post.

Thanks for the link

You guys are talking like this is a bad thing. It is a long time coming. I believe Nanny Cay has the infrastructure for this. I know money is VERY tight for everyone, but this will be good for everyone. On our second boat we installed Lectrasans for waste treatment, fortunately it did not do well in the charter market and left the boat with a nasty funk, but our boat was safe to swim around. We had to remove them.

While I do think that the BVI should move towards this goal, I don't think it is going to happen right now.

The government link speaks of "intent" to implement changes, and not about actual new laws. The BVI Platinum article is based on the government one and is just an example of biased and bad reporting.

I will wait for the law to passed/ratified before getting too excited.

Nanny Cay does not currently have pump-out facilities.

I dont think it is a bad thing...I would just think they would focus on a reopening plan because you cant have tourism without tourists and people that go elsewhere might not come back...

I am not saying open up tomorrow necessarily but at least telegraph a plan for all...

and that rotten egg funk is something you never forget...

Was going to bring this up on the USVI thread, but.....
Last time I was sailing in the USVI I did not see any pump out boats and No dumping in US waters has been in affect for years.
Is the USVI any better equipped to handle pumpouts?

On the Chesapeake Bay, most anchorages are very proactive in the pumpout market.
Make pumpout easy and cheap ( $5 or free) and reduce waste ending up in the bay is a no-brainer.
My 2016 Beneteau does not even have a gravity flush out option, I have to pumpout every time. Amazing how quick a 23gal holding tank fills up.

In the states at least on the Chesapeake Bay and tributaries the Clean Vessel Act helps subsidize the majority of the cost of constructing the pump outs so less of the cost is passed through to boaters. We had one installed at our Yacht Club and there is no cost for use and the condition of the grant is that all boaters (not just our Yacht Club) can use. It is also easier to dispose of the waste.

I would imagine the BVIs wouldn't have a grant program to help subsidize and disposal would be harder...so it would be more cost passed through to the boaters maybe?

With two of us on our boat with a large 25 gallon holding tank we have to empty once a week. Capt. Jay calls it "Beam reaching to Poopville." The rule in the US is to go to the 3-mile line on the chart.

We're in Grenada on our boat in 2-week quarantine in the quarantine anchorage. The Grenadian Coast Guard is cruising the anchorage and checking boat names against their list - about 60 boats now, but it peaked at over 110 boats. The Coast Guard is quite grumpy about allowing us to leave to dump holding tanks. Most are just pumping over as they go.

The BVI/USVI need to get serious about having the infrastructure to pump out. In Maryland all marinas and fuel docks are required to have pumpout facilities.

Cheers, RickG

The River Keepers organization also sponsors pumpout boats that patrol the popular Maryland anchorage and offer free pumpouts. Capt. Jay knows the story first hand, but there was a USVI pumpout boat that was bought with grant money. It did not go into service because there was nowhere to pumpout. On St. John one of the septic services has offered to schedule one of their septic trucks to pumpout from a pumpout boat, but that is not happening yet. In Marathon the City Marina has 220+ moorings and has a weekly pumpout boat service. It has made a big impact on the lagoon there.

For proper black water disposal it is going to take government commitment, money, and real incentives to make it happen. But, many private boats in the VIs do not have holding tanks.

Cheers, RickG

Rick - I hear people say this pretty often. But is that really the case? I can't imagine a boat being built in the last twenty years that didn't have holding tanks so there can't be a single boat in the entire charter fleet that doesn't have tanks. So seems this is surely an issue only on older boats. Will these boats have to install tanks or will they be exempt? And how many of those boats are actively lived on and dumping overboard now? I am curious to know the real number on this, but it's probably not a number that can be obtained without some govt. collection of data. If the boats polluting the bays are the ones that are discharging overboard then having the boats with tanks go out - presumably 3 miles - to dump isn't going to make any difference on the water quality in the bays. I like/want clean water but I wonder if this new regulation is going to achieve the goal. IMHO a better place to start would be to mandate all boats have black water holding tanks.

Perhaps the government will use the " Environmental Tax"

Some months ago they were saying that "environmental tax" money was just sitting there. Was wondering the other day if that's still the case. Or, if it's like the East End sewer money that ended up in the Pier Park!

I was really surprised when we visited BVI for the first time this past February that pumpout facilities did not exist. At home, we are accustomed to pumping out our boat every time we get fuel.

Our charter company in BVI had our boat configured so that flushing the head resulted in the waste going right out into the water, not into the holding tank. The low point of our trip was seeing a poop float past while we were anchored and swimming at Jost.

So I am all for this law.

Don't know what charter company you were using, but for the last several charters in the BVI, the company's I have used all were recommending closing the head thru hull while at anchor.
And absolutely at the marina. All gravity thru hulls were shut upon boarding and shut upon returning to dock. Opened once in open water. Part of the boat check out process.

We have been practicing this for much longer. A good habit to literally avoid #2 above.

Our "jobs on board" include designated "head captain" for this task. Promotional opportunities from this position include "dingy captain" and "galley winch"

Moorings advises to keep Y valve closed....also good to tell the crew when the red light is on dont use...

so , instead of release the holding tanks in the middle of a channel off shore...which basically gets eaten by fish and other sea life.... we have to hold it in our tanks and get pumped out (maybe twice a charter).. where it then gets dumped into a bay somewhere anyway...makes no sense to me.

I agree with needing to pump out waste in inner lakes and streams and close to the coast but the currents in the BVIs are pretty strong and the ocean is basically the world's toilet anyway! Moorings in the BVI told us to keep the Y-value closed in harbour and at anchors and to release when in the middle of the channel. Seemed to work pretty good. Also only biological waste no toilet paper...

I've noticed in the Caribbean that many countries have a dry wastebasket for toilet paper along side their toilets. I've always thought this to be unsanitary. As for marine toilets in the BVI not discharging any toilet paper...

Guess again.

The reason for the wastebasket is that some of the toilets discharge in the surrounding waters and they don’t want the toilet paper to be seen floating in the water in other cases it because the toilets are outhouses.

We have always used the small wastebaskets in the heads for used toilet paper. We bring small trash bags from home (or Kroger bags) to line the wastebaskets, replacing as needed and transferring used paper to the main trash. We have a rule that nothing goes in the head other than pee and poop. We close the 'Y' valves except when dumping in the open. Not perfect, but seems to be the best option. The humor is when we return home and get momentarily confused about what to do with our used toilet paper :-)

As someone who was introduced to cruising in the Pacific North West, where holding tanks are mandatory and there are strict regulations around overboard discharge, it completely blew my mind that this has not been the case in the BVI, a tropical paradise. My mind immediately jumped to photos of hundreds of boats moored in some beautiful bay and the thought of them all discharging their sewage straight into the water made me nauseous.

Agree with you - couldn't imagine swimming in CGB or some of the other mooring spots.