Marina Dock Age

Proper disposal of hazardous materials, such as motor oil, antifreeze, and batteries, can be a difficult and costly process for boaters because they frequently don’t know where to dispose of these materials or how to take care of them. As a result, they’ll sometimes leave these products in their dock boxes with the hope that one day they’ll disappear, or they’ll simply throw these products in the trash can, which is not how to properly dispose of these items.

Facing this situation, California Yacht Marina, a certified Clean Marina with 364 slips in Chula Vista, Calif., where 20 percent of its customers are liveaboards, decided to resolve the problem head-on. Marina Manager Junior Cruz discovered that a lot of his marina customers were simply leaving these hazardous materials in their dock boxes. This was dangerous because some of these products could eventually wind up in Chula Vista Bay. This spring, Cruz decided it was time to get these hazardous materials out of the marina.

Cruz decided to have a “Clean Out Your Dock Box Day.” To help him with the effort, Cruz approached the city of Chula Vista’s recycling specialist, who liked the idea so much that he decided to extend the program to every resident in Chula Vista and call it “Clean Out Your Garage Day.”

The marina and city decided to hold this one-day event at the marina on Saturday, June 20. After securing permits and state grants, which paid for most of this project, the city hired a licensed disposal company, Clean Harbors Environmental Inc., to properly collect and dispose of this hazardous waste.

On the day of the event, 35 workers from the disposal company brought 55-gallon drums and several large containers to collect the hazardous materials and even put plastic on the marina parking lot to keep dangerous chemicals from getting into the water or sewer system. Cruz said by the time the collection started at 9 a.m., boaters and cars had already lined up to get rid of their hazardous waste. He estimates that 12 boat owners from his marina disposed of their toxic waste, as well as hundreds of city residents.

Benefits

Cruz said that one of the main reasons for the great turnout was the promotional and advertising efforts of the city of Chula Vista. Cruz said they made fliers and posted them throughout town telling residents about the toxic waste disposal day. For its part, California Yacht Marina also made fliers and hung them throughout the facility to get its boaters involved.

The collection went on until about 2:30 in the afternoon, and by that time 50,000 pounds of hazardous waste was collected. Cruz said this event was so successful that he is already talking with the city of Chula Vista about doing the same event next year.

When asked why he thought this program was beneficial to California Yacht Marina, Cruz replied, “Because our location on the Chula Vista Bay attracts a lot of our customers. So it’s important to keep the bay clean for future boaters.”

Cruz said that one added benefit of this year’s program was that it didn’t cost the marina any money. Thanks to the grants obtained by the city of Chula Vista, the project ran on its own and had a big positive impact on the ecosystem in Chula Vista Bay.

 Rob Preston is Managing Editor of Marina Dock Age. He can be reached at

847/647-2900 Ext. 1311 or via e-mail at rpreston@marinadockage.com