Marina Dock Age

From the 1950s until about 1992, houseboats dumped sewage into Fontana Lake in Swain County, N.C., because the lake didn’t have any pumpouts. This practice of dumping sewage into the lake or “straight piping” led to very high fecal coliform numbers and dozens of illnesses every year.

“Some of the fecal coliform numbers were about 1,200 parts per million, and the state requires levels to be below 200 parts per million to be safe,” said Tony Sherrill, owner of Alarka Boat Docks, a facility with 150 floating slips.

Fixing the problem

By 1992, Sherrill decided to do something to fix the problem by working with Steve Akers from the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). Together they shared the cost to retrofit a boat into a mobile pumpout with a septic system and a 250-gallon tank. Sherrill then took this boat to houseboats on the lake and encouraged them to use this free pumpout rather than dumping their waste.

This makeshift pumpout boat removed the waste from these houseboats and took it to the TVA septic system where it was properly treated. Boaters got accustomed to using the pumpout boat after a year and a half, and then Sherrill started charging boaters $25 per pumpout to cover his maintenance costs.

Getting involved

While Sherrill was doing his best to combat the dumping in Fontana Lake, Swain County Commissioner David Monteith also realized that this dumping was causing a problem. “A doctor told me there were 67 cases of fecal illness in 1998. So I took 40 samples from the lake to find out why so many people were getting sick, and we got very high fecal coliform readings of 700-800 parts per million,” said Monteith.

Monteith took these readings to the state of North Carolina, which recommended the county pass an ordinance against straight piping. An ordinance was passed in 2002 forbidding boaters from dumping sewage into the lake.

Monteith also joined forces with Sherrill, TVA and Southwestern North Carolina Resource Conservation and Development Counsel Inc. (RC&D) to form Fontana Lake Waste Recovery in 2004.

This organization, which was created to clean up the lake, got a total of about $760,000 in grants from RC&D, The Clean Water Management Trust Fund, TVA and The Little Tennessee Non-Points Team. They used the money to give each marina on Fontana Lake a floating pumpout boat and a 1,000-gallon floating holding tank for sewage, the first such floating holding tanks in the state, so boats stopped dumping in the lake.

Fontana Lake Waste Recovery used the remaining grant money of about $175 per houseboat, to help pay for toilets and holding tanks that needed to be installed on TVA houseboats.

A cleaner lake

Water samples taken in 2006 showed a significantly lower level of fecal coliform in the water compared to just a few years before. In one location the test results gave a fecal reading of 27 parts per million, a major improvement from the several hundred parts per million measurements that were making swimmers sick.

This amazing transformation was attributed to the efforts of Commissioner Monteith, Tony Sherrill, Steve Akers and the organizations who contributed thousands of dollars to fight this problem. The new tougher ordinance prohibiting dumping also played a major role as houseboat owners are now required to sign an agreement with their marinas that they won’t dump and will submit to inspections to ensure compliance.

Rob Preston is managing editor of Marina Dock Age magazine. He can be reached by phone at 847/647-2900 Ext. 1311 or via e-mail at rpreston@prestonpub.com.

Right now the focus in the Gulf of Mexico is on permanently stopping the leaking oil. Once that is accomplished, the focus will turn to cleaning up the massive amounts of oil in the Gulf. When that time comes, bioremediation may be a common method for cleanup.

Bioremediation is a process by which bacteria eat hydrocarbons like oil, thereby cleaning up a contaminated site. These bacteria then turn that oil into carbon dioxide, which is considered a non-harmful gas by EPA, and water. Many companies offer bioremedial products to clean up oil spills.

One such company is Envirologic Biobased Technologies Inc. Envirologic has three products that are already being used in the Gulf for cleanup and may be more widely used once the focus turns to cleaning up the oil.

Oil eating products

One Envirologic product that’s already being used is NavalKleen. This product is used to clean equipment on the water like skimming equipment and boat hulls. It is sprayed on this equipment to keep any oil from being transported into marinas and other parts of the Gulf.

Another product is FleetKleen, which is used to clean equipment on land like oil booms. Like NavalKleen, FleetKleen uses naturally occurring bacteria, which attaches to the oil and eats the hydrocarbons.

Finally, Liquid Remediac is another bioremedial product, and it is being used in the Gulf to clean up marshes, beaches and other wildlife areas that have oil in them.

Bioremedial products usually come in drums or tanks because large quantities of these products are needed.

Preparing for the cleanup

Since BP has been able to put a temporary cap on the well stopping oil from spilling into the Gulf of Mexico, regulators are preparing for the massive cleanup effort. That’s why the Fla. Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has invited companies like Envirologic to a field test for biotreatments of beach sand that’s contaminated with weathered crude oil in Pensacola, Fla. The purpose of this field test is to determine what products work well and could be used in the long cleanup process.

Rob Preston is managing editor of Marina Dock Age magazine. He can be reached by phone at 847/647-2900 or via e-mail at rpreston@prestonpub.com.

June is traditionally one of the busiest months for boaters and beach goers in Orange Beach, Ala.

“People usually have a difficult time finding space to lie out at the beaches and there are so many boats on the Intracoastal Waterway and in the Gulf of Mexico that they look like ants,” said Sarah Armstrong, operations manager at Orange Beach Marina, a 161-slip facility in Orange Beach.

This typically busy boating season has been replaced this year by silence and the foul smell of oil. “Boaters can’t even use their boats because oil has forced the Intracoastal Waterway to be temporarily closed and so they have no way of leaving the marina or fishing,” said Armstrong.

Impact on marinas

This harsh reality has hurt area marinas like Orange Beach Marina, whose customers include five commercial charter fishing boats and many recreational fishermen.

As the oil spill worsened and as word spread that the Intracoastal Waterway would be periodically closed to recreational boats and fishing for oil cleanup, Orange Beach Marina’s customers began leaving the marina while they still could.

“Currently, only 68 of our 161 slips are occupied. Our slip rentals are down 65 percent, and our fuel sales are down 80 percent from last year,” said Armstrong. “We had four boaters go to the Bahamas, two went to the Florida Keys, one went to Bermuda, and seven or eight boaters went up river to escape the oil.”

Although the boating season goes until Labor Day, Orange Beach Marina already considers this season to be a complete loss.

“Unless there is some miracle to make all this oil disappear, this season is lost,” said Armstrong. “We are just hoping everything will be back to normal by next boating season.”

Armstrong said if things don’t improve by next season, a lot of people in this industry will lose their jobs and some marinas may even go out of business.

Tournaments cancelled

To add insult to injury, the Mobile Big Game Fishing Club has cancelled two area fishing tournaments, which bring hundreds of boats to the area.

These tournaments bring slip rentals, fuel sales, and bait and grocery sales to Orange Beach Marina and other area facilities.

“We usually get 40 boats that stay in this marina for the Memorial Day tournament and another 10 boats for the ladies tournament that was scheduled for June 18-20,” said Armstrong.

Cutting back

On June 7, Orange Beach Marina made the decision to revert back to its normal winter hours due to a lack of business. The marina is now open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and is closed on Sunday, instead of its normal summer hours of 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.

During the summer, Orange Beach Marina usually hires seven dock assistants to meet the increased demand, but due to the spill, the marina has had to rescind its employment offers.

“We feel helpless. If we were hit with a hurricane we could make the needed repairs and reopen. But with this oil spill, there is nothing we can do to solve the problem except wait and hope. We have no idea what the future holds,” said Armstrong.

Fighting back

While Orange Beach Marina can’t control the oil leak, it did purchase booms that are ready to be used on the Orange Beach Marina canal to protect the boats that are still in the marina should the oil get closer to the marina.

For now the canal remains open so the marina can capitalize on the few fuel sales that remain.

“We are keeping track of the expenses we incur from this spill, which we will be passing on to British Petroleum for reimbursement,” said Armstrong.

Rob Preston is managing editor of Marina Dock Age magazine. He can be reached by phone at 847/647-2900 Ext. 1311 or via e-mail at rpreston@prestonpub.com.

Ever since the April 20 oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, British Petroleum (BP) has been working to contain the leaking oil that’s flowing out of the sea floor.

Coast Guard and other agencies are also trying to clean up the spilled oil and keep it from coming ashore in Alabama, Louisiana, and Florida using booms, chemical dispersants, and burning methods.

Panama City Marina, a 240-slip municipal facility with 300 feet of side-tie dockage has been affected by these cleanup efforts.

On May 4, the Bay County Emergency Operations Center (EOC) and the Coast Guard began using Panama City Marina as a staging area for the oil cleanup.

“They tried to use the Port of Panama City first for the cleanup, but due to homeland security issues, they couldn’t use the port,” said Bill Lloyd, marina director for the city. That’s when EOC and Coast Guard decided to make Panama City Marina into a cleanup staging area.

Impact on the marina

In order to use Panama City Marina as a cleanup staging area the Coast Guard brought lots of equipment with them. “They are loading booming materials onto their offshore crew boats from our marina,” said Lloyd.

As a result, EOC and Coast Guard have taken over the marina’s parking lot for Pier 8 and have shutdown its double-wide boat ramp. However, Panama City Marina remains open for business.

“We understand that something had to be done to clean up this mess and protect the shorelines, and we are happy to help,” said Lloyd. “The only problems I have are that boaters can’t drive to Pier 8 or use our boat ramp.”

Coast Guard and EOC closed down the marina’s double-wide boat ramp, which Lloyd said is the busiest in the county and a major source of revenue for the marina.

Lloyd estimates that his boat ramp brings in 75 to 100 boats per day to his marina, which means bait, tackle, refreshments, snacks, and fuel sales will be affected by the ramp closure.

However, the marina is fueling these cleanup vessels, which may offset some of the lost revenue.

“We are negotiating with EOC and Coast Guard to get our ramp back open by Memorial Day and for them to allow our boaters to park in the Pier 8 parking lot,” said Lloyd. Meanwhile, cleanup crews could be at the marina for at least another 90 days.

“Some of our customers are complaining about the inconvenience, but many of them also realize that it is more important to keep oil out of the marina and away from the shoreline,” said Lloyd. So far Panama City Marina has not had any oil near the marina.

Getting reimbursed

Lloyd is keeping track of what this cleanup effort is costing the marina with the hope of getting reimbursed from either the federal government or from BP once this environmental disaster is over.

Right now he knows that the leak has to be sealed first in order for things to return to normal at Panama City Marina as soon as possible. “I hope they get that leak taken care of,” Lloyd said.   

Rob Preston is managing editor of Marina Dock Age magazine. He can be reached by phone at 847/647-2900 Ext. 1311 or via e-mail at rpreston@prestonpub.com.

Since the 1980s more than $660 million have been spent to clean up the Thea Foss Waterway and Commencement Bay in Tacoma, Wash.

The Thea Foss Waterway is a mile and a half inlet off Commencement Bay that runs along downtown Tacoma while Commencement Bay is part of Puget Sound.

These two areas were polluted from heavy industrial use beginning in the early 1990s and due to storm water runoff.

To celebrate this extensive cleanup and protect these waterways from future pollution, Citizens for a Healthy Bay, an organization dedicated to protecting the bay and surrounding waters, started the Clean Green Boating Fair in 2009.

Clean Green Boating Fair

On May 2, 2009, Citizens for a Healthy Bay (CHB) partnered with the Tacoma Liveaboard Association (TLA) to host the first annual Clean Green Boating Fair. The goal of this fair was to recognize the extensive cleanup efforts that had already been taken and to offer environmentally friendly boating tips to liveaboards and other boaters to protect the Thea Foss Waterway, Commencement Bay, and Puget Sound in the future.

Boaters were told about the importance of using pumpouts instead of dumping waste into Puget Sound and which marinas had pumpouts. Boaters were also given a kit with environmentally friendly products, including a bilge pillow that will absorb any petroleum products from bilge pumps, an absorbent pad that is used to soak up oil or other toxic substances, and a fuel bib that is put around a fuel nozzle to catch any overflowing gas.

The fair was attended by the mayor of Tacoma, and representatives from EPA, DNR, and the Port of Tacoma, who set up information booths. The event was held in the Delin Docks Marina parking lot due to a limited budget of only $500. The porta-toilets, tents, and public announcement system used in the fair were all in-kind donations from businesses and individuals.

Clean Green Boating Festival

This year, CHB and TLA are once again holding the Clean Green Boating Fair but with some key changes. This year’s event will be held on a different date, May 22, 2010. Most importantly they are now calling it a festival. “We are calling this event a festival because, while the focus is still on environmental awareness, we really want it to be fun for boaters and the public,” said Jeff Barney, Bay Patrol Director for CHB.

To make this event more fun, Barney is making it bigger and better. The Clean Green Boating Festival will be held this year at the Foss Waterway Seaport, which will provide participants with 1,350 feet of dock space and a promenade that overlooks the water.

Thanks to a bigger budget of $3,500 from donations and a small grant from the city of Tacoma for advertising, the Clean Green Boating Festival will include three food vendors, live music, more booths for people to interact with environmental agencies, and even more information for the public about how to protect Puget Sound and the Thea Foss Waterway.

During this festival, different environmental experts will give presentations to the public about protecting the environment. One such presentation will talk about where to hold charitable carwashes to prevent the wash water from running into Puget Sound. “Often times students or other organizations will have their carwashes in a location where the water runs directly into the Thea Foss Waterway. So we’ll suggest alternative locations where runoff won’t be a problem,” said Barney.

Besides providing boaters with the kit of environmental products from last year and making presentations about green practices like using pumpouts, Barney said boaters will also get a booklet that lists several green products they can use. Barney said speakers will also address homeowners about some environmentally friendly fertilizers that they can use on their lawn to keep dangerous chemicals out of Puget Sound.

“We hope that this festival will turn into a regional event where we can reach more and more people about the importance of keeping these waterways clean for future generations,” said Barney.

Rob Preston is managing editor of Marina Dock Age magazine. He can be reached by phone at 847/647-2900 ext. 1311 or via e-mail at rpreston@prestonpub.com.

There was a time when foam dock floats broke apart in the water and threatened marine life that mistook the foam pieces as food. “People were sick of seeing foam beads floating in the water or washing up on the shoreline,” said Fred Hunt, an independent consultant specializing in dock floats.

Fortunately this problem has been solved with the development of encapsulated dock floats where foam is encased to keep it from escaping. This “green product” is now widely used by marinas while loose foam floating in the water is mostly a nuisance of the past.

The beginning

In the 1970’s and 1980’s, several companies began manufacturing and/or selling encapsulated floats to protect the environment and provide a better dock float. Those companies include United McGill, Atlantic-Meeco, ShoreMaster, Formex Manufacturing, and Galva-foam to name a few.

Then in the late 1990’s the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) enacted regulations on its waterways requiring marinas to replace unencapsulated floats with encapsulated floats. Under these regulations any new marina that was built or any marina that renovated it docks after Aug. 17, 1998, had to replace its unencapsulated floats with encapsulated floats.

Since that regulation was put into effect, more companies have gotten into the encapsulated dock float business, including Premier Materials and Ace Roto-Mold, which have worked together to create an encapsulated float that’s in use today.

With the rapid growth of the encapsulated dock float market, new industry-wide quality standards, like the Hunt Test, which was developed by Fred Hunt, have also taken hold.

Under this test, all foam dock floats must absorb three pounds per cubic foot of water or less. Foam that met this requirement wouldn’t break apart and would continue to float should the shell of an encapsulated float fail and the foam come in contact with water.

With all the encapsulated floats now available, most marinas have switched or are in the process of switching to these floats over the cheaper option of unencapsulated floats.

Jamestown Resort and Marina

One marina that is in the process of replacing its unencapulated dock floats is Jamestown Resort and Marina, an 800-slip facility in Jamestown, KY. The marina was built in 1989 with simple foam floats, which it still has today. “Over time these floats have gotten saturated with water and as a result the docks are sitting lower,” said Jamestown General Manager Bill Chamberlain.

Although Chamberlain has only been at Jamestown Resort and Marina since Jan. 1, 2010, he has already made the decision to replace his open foam floats with Premier Materials and Ace Roto-Mold’s encapsulated floats. “I used these encapsulated floats at previous marinas I was at and I never had any problems with them. These floats keep their buoyancy and keep foam out of the water,” said Chamberlain.

According to Premier Materials President Keith Boulais, these Premier and Ace Roto-Mold floats consist of foam that’s made from virgin expanded polystyrene and a shell that’s made from virgin linear low polyethylene.

Boulais said they use “virgin” or new materials when they make their floats so the floats will last about 40 years compared to floats made from recycled materials that don’t last as long. Premier and Ace Roto-Mold offer a 15-year warranty on their floats, which attach to the bottom of a dock with bolts.

One reason Jamestown Resort and Marina made the decision to use encapsulated floats is because it is on an ACE lake. Chamberlain said he supports the ACE regulation about encapsulated floats and is excited to install the first 150 floats this month.

Aqualand Marina

Like Jamestown Resort and Marina, Aqualand Marina, a 1,767-slip facility on Lake Lanier in Georgia is in the process of replacing its unencapsulated floats with encapsulated floats. So far hundreds of the marina’s floating slips are utilizing Formex Manufacturing’s encapsulated floats while other slips at the marina are still using open foam floats.

Len Jernigan, the marina GM has seen the negative aspects of using open foam and the benefits of encapsulated floats. “The open foam absorbs water, which compromises its ability to float. Sometimes wildlife will chip away at the foam thinking its food and if fuel gets in the water, the fuel will eat the exposed foam. I haven’t had any of these problems with my encapsulated floats,” said Jernigan.

According to Formex National Sales Manager Nick Grillo, the company uses solid block expanded polystyrene foam, which meets the Hunt test for absorption. Then to meet ACE regulations, Formex covers the foam with a shell of high molecular weight polyethylene, which is the material used in truck beds and is able to withstand large impacts.

Grillo said these dock floats attach to the bottom of the dock with bolts and should last for between 30 and 40 years.   

Jernigan plans on replacing his other open foam floats at Aqualand Marina when he replaces the rest of his docks because Lake Lanier is an ACE operated lake.  

Conclusion

While unencapsulated foam floats are still seen in some marinas, they are clearly being phased out. Most marinas that are replacing their dock floats are now using encapsulated dock floats because although they are more expensive, they perform better, last longer, and protect the environment.

Rob Preston is Managing Editor of Marina Dock Age. He can be reached by phone at 847/647-2900 Ext. 1311 or via e-mail at rpreston@prestonpub.com.

Until now marinas have never considered their fuel docks as solutions to climate change. On the contrary, marinas pump fuel at their docks, and when boaters burn fuel, carbon emissions are emitted into the atmosphere. However, a new project called the Green Gallon Project may soon change that perception by turning the fuel dock into an emissions fighting tool.

Marinas participating in the Green Gallon Project allow their boaters to add a surcharge of one percent onto their gas dock bill that will go toward buying renewable energy. Although this project was just recently started and marinas have yet to implement it, several marinas have expressed interest in the project, according to Captain Dan Kipnis, founder of the Green Gallon Project.

Carbon’s negative impact

Kipnis has been both a commercial and recreational fishing captain for most of his life. He has seen first-hand the negative impact carbon dioxide from fossil fuels is having on the ocean, and he decided to do something about it. “The ocean holds three times more carbon dioxide than the air. Therefore, more of the carbon put into the atmosphere is winding up in the oceans, which is creating an acidic effect called ocean acidification,” said Kipnis.

Kipnis explained that the carbonic acids reaching our oceans are harmful because they eat the shells off of zooplankton, which is the basic food source for all marine life. Although the acidic levels aren’t yet high enough to kill off ocean life, they will be if something isn’t done about it. That’s why Kipnis spent the last three years developing his 501C(3) non-profit Green Button Project Corp. in Miami Beach, Fla., that started the Green Gallon Project.

How it works

The Green Gallon Project works by adding a one percent charge before taxes, onto a consenting boater’s gas bill at a participating marina. Then at the end of the month, the participating marina calculates how much money was raised under this project and either sends a check for that amount to the Green Button Project Corp. or pays the amount owed through the project Web site, www.thegreengallon.us using Pay Pal.

Once the Green Gallon Project receives the money, it hands it over to a brokerage firm called Renewable Choice Energy, which then buys carbon credits from a landfill that uses captured methane gas to create electricity. “Because a landfill captures and burns methane, a cleaner burning gas for electricity lowering their CO2 output, they are given carbon credits by the Chicago Carbon Exchange, which have a monetary value. I buy these carbon credits through my broker to support the landfill’s environmentally friendly practices,” said Kipnis.

Industry support

Although the Green Gallon Project was only recently introduced to the marina industry at the International Marinas & Boatyards Conference in Tampa, Fla., in January, it has already received a lot of support from business and industry professionals. For example, Jerry Nessenson, president of ValvTect Fuels in Dundee, Ill., is encouraging his nearly 500 certified ValvTect Marinas to adopt the project at their fuel docks. Nessenson also introduced the project to the board of directors of the Association of Marina Industries (AMI), which decided to partner with the Green Gallon Project.

Both ValvTect and AMI have written about the Green Gallon Project in their newsletters, hoping to make marinas aware of this opportunity. So far this publicity has paid off for Kipnis as several marinas have contacted him seeking more information about the project and one, Lamb’s Yacht Center in Jacksonville, Fla., plans to unveil the program at its National Marina Day celebration.

Making a difference

Kipnis said that recreational boaters used 1.6 billion gallons of gas and 321 million gallons of diesel in 2007. If just five percent of the boaters had participated in this project, then Kipnis would be able to buy millions of dollars in carbon credits, which would support landfills that turn methane into electricity and more importantly, protect the oceans.

Kipnis believes that the fight against climate change, which could reduce the acid levels in the ocean, must be successful. He adds that this is so important that he has already worked with both DockMaster and Watch Captain software companies so marinas can easily add this program to their automated fuel dock services.

If marinas are to be environmental leaders protecting the world’s waterways and taking the climate change threat seriously, they should join the Green Gallon Project, Kipnis said. To get involved, marinas can call Kipnis at 305/672-3807, e-mail him at captaindan@thegreengallon.us, or sign up online through his Web site mentioned above.

Once a marina signs up for the program, it is given decals for each pump that states the marina’s involvement in the program, brochures to give to boaters, and Kipnis helps the marina adjust its software to offer this one percent charge. Kipnis hopes to eventually have 60 percent of the 13,400 marinas throughout the United States involved in this project, as well as some international marinas.

Rob Preston is managing editor of Marina Dock Age magazine. He can be reached by phone at 847/647-2900 Ext. 1311 or via e-mail at  rpreston@prestonpub.com.

While most marina managers aren’t sure how successful their marinas will be in 2010, this New Year has already been a success for Hammond Marina, a 918-slip facility in Hammond, Ind. That’s because on Jan. 11, Hammond Marina was designated as Indiana’s first Clean Marina. Although Hammond Marina just won this award, the marina has always taken steps to protect the environment.

Environmental protector

Even before Hammond Marina was designated as a Clean Marina, the facility took care to protect Lake Michigan. Hammond Marina offered its customers recycling bins for hazardous materials, such as batteries and used oil, to keep dangerous chemicals from getting in the lake.

The marina hired a company to come and pick these materials up and properly recycle them and also offered recycling services for shrink wrap, glass, and metal. Hammond City crews pick up those recyclables.

Hammond Marina also built a fish cleaning station for fishermen where they clean their fish and dispose of the unwanted fish parts. An environmental service picks up those fish parts and disposes of them properly. Offering a fish cleaning station keeps fishermen from dumping the fish bodies back in Lake Michigan, which spreads diseases.

To keep pollutants out of the water, the marina planted vegetative buffer zones to filter any runoff rain water before it went back into the lake. The marina also used small suction containers when fueling to keep any fuel from overflowing into the water. Finally the marina offered four pumpouts, which it required boaters to use instead of dumping their sewage into the water.

When the Indiana Clean Marina Program started through the state’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) in May 2008, Hammond Marina Harbormaster Keith Carey and Marina Director Bill Hill, CMM, said the marina already qualified for designation by meeting 80 percent of the required points.

However, both men said they wanted to meet 100 percent of the requirements. So Hammond Marina worked with DNR and other Indiana marinas to help grow the Clean Marina program while making minor facility changes to meet every requirement.

Getting certified

The biggest change that Hammond Marina needed to make before being designated as a Clean Marina was it had to install a proper boat washing station. Boaters were simply washing their boats at the launch ramp, and the waste water was going back into Lake Michigan without any filtering process.

Hammond Marina used its contracted plumbers to build the wash station, which consisted of cutting a rectangle in the parking lot, adding the filter to remove solids from the wash water, and connecting it up to the municipal sewer system where the wash water would go.

The same company that takes the solids from the fish cleaning station also takes solids removed from the wash water and disposes of it properly. The wash station also includes signage and a pressure washer to clean off the boats.

While qualifying for designation, Hammond Marina also expanded its recycling area to recycle bad gasoline and antifreeze so boaters had an option besides putting it in the trash or in Lake Michigan. Finally, Hammond Marina color-coded its drains so customers and staff would know which drains empty into the lake and which drains empty into the sewer system. 

A Clean Marina

Hammond Marina was designated as a Clean Marina, a first in the state of Indiana, and it even met 100 percent of the needed requirements. Now both Hill and Carey hope this designation will help them fill their slips. But both men admit that getting this certification wasn’t just about increasing business. “We want the lake to be as clean as possible for ourselves and our customers,” said Hill.

Rob Preston is Managing Editor of Marina Dock Age. He can be reached by phone at 847/647-2900 ext. 1311 or via e-mail at rpreston@prestonpub.com.

In July 2009, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) opened a new $14 million “green” marina that it is describing as the most energy efficient and environmentally friendly marina in the state.

 Straits State Harbor in Mackinaw City, Mich., is a 132-slip facility on the shores of Lake Huron. What separates it from other marinas is its reliance on alternative energy sources, its use of 100 percent recycled materials, and its construction of rain gardens that naturally filter runoff. Throughout its buildings and in its daily operations and maintenance activities, Straits State Harbor sets a new standard for what makes a “green” marina while providing boaters with all the comforts of home.

 The beginning

 Straits State Harbor was built at the site of an old car ferry dock that was originally built in the early 1920s to take cars from the Lower Peninsula of Michigan to the Upper Peninsula and back. Then in 1957, when the Mackinaw Bridge was built to connect the upper and lower peninsulas, the car ferry wasn’t needed anymore, and the ferry dock closed.

 Since the early 1990s, DNR’s Parks and Recreation Division has planned to build a marina on the old ferry dock site, but the American car industry collapsed, dragging down the Michigan economy and putting this state project on hold. 

 In the early part of this decade, as more new boats were sold than in the 1990s, the associated marine fuel tax brought in enough increased revenue for DNR to consider moving ahead with a new marina. Unlike other state-built marinas, this new marina would showcase the state’s efforts to be a leader in producing alternative energy and using recycled and “green” products. The goal was to build a marina that not only served boaters but also was pro-active in implementing policies, procedures, and technologies that protected the environment, conserved water and energy, and saved money.

 In 2005, the DNR received the approval to proceed with the new marina project. Four years and $14 million later, Straits State Harbor was built. The DNR is very happy with this completed facility because it is a shinning example of what all builders and contractors can do to be “green.”

 Renewable resources

 The first thing DNR did in building this “green” marina was ground-up the materials from the old docks and reuse them to build the marina.

 To make the marina’s docks, DNR contracted with Flotation Docking in Cedarville, Mich., to use forest certified sustainable wood. For each tree that was taken out of the forest, another one was planted. Each slip offers water and electricity, and the marina hopes to add Wi-Fi service by spring.

 Then, DNR decided that a truly “green” marina should be at least partially powered by renewable energy. To accomplish this, DNR decided to install eight wind turbines manufactured by Skystream, a Michigan company, at $12,000 each. It decided on wind power because this area on Lake Huron is noted for its wind. “It was more expensive to put the turbines in, but we felt energy savings was the right thing to do. With the amount of electricity these turbines will produce, they will pay for themselves in a few years,” said Tom Paquin, the Parks and Recreation Manager for the DNR who oversees Straits State Harbor.

 Paqun noted that the wind turbines will produce as much as 40 percent of the electricity needed for ice suppression in the winter and to run the marina in the summer. He added that the wind turbines will supply the electricity used for the appliances in the boater’s lounge at the Harbormaster’s building.

 In terms of energy conservation, Paquin pointed out the marina will use solar-power to light the walkways around the marina. The marina also uses a battery powered truck and battery powered lawnmowers to maintain the marina. These pieces of equipment do not emit any carbon from fossil fuels and instead, are recharged every night using electricity from the wind turbines.

 To further conserve energy, the Harbormaster’s building uses light tubes, which direct natural light into the building to cut down on the electric light needs. During peak times, this natural light can account for about 80 percent of the needed light in the building. Furthermore, all the electric lights run on timers and motion sensors and only turn on when there isn’t enough natural light in the facility.

 The Harbormaster’s building contains furniture made from 100% recycled materials, which is the same material used to produce the benches in the outdoor picnic shelters. The building is also equipped with low flush toilets and urinals to conserve another precious resource, water.

 To protect Lake Huron from the runoff rainwater pollutants, rain gardens were planted throughout the marina to naturally filter the water.

 Although the state DNR believes the new marina is an outstanding example of what is involved in building “green” facilities, it wanted recognition from an objective source.  So it applied for and received Gold Certification in the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) project. “We’re very proud of this facility and how it uses renewable materials and alternative energy,” said Paquin.

 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

For many years Kingman Yacht Center in Cataumet, Mass., has installed equipment and adhered to standards that looked after the environment. This off-season, Cape Cod’s largest full-service marina and boatyard plans to go even further by installing a 99.54-kilowatt solar system that will provide almost one-quarter of the marina’s energy needs.

Reaching for the sun
In October, cranes began moving into Kingman Yacht Center to begin one of the largest commercial solar projects on Cape Cod, but that was not before lots of planning and infrastructure preparation.

Scott Zeien, Kingman Yacht Center’s president, said the marina had put some thought into using solar power, but nothing concrete had come of it. “It really began with a sales person walking in and saying ‘why aren’t you considering doing this?’” Zeien said. Once the marina got real numbers in front of them, “It all just started to make sense,” he added. The marina started planning its solar project in February, and completed permit work in September.

That was the easy part. Installing 474 solar panels on the south-facing roof surfaces of three buildings would take more laborious prep work. In order to accommodate the extra weight of the solar panels, the marina replaced the roofs on two storage buildings. “I didn’t want to put a 25-year structure [solar array] on a 5-year roof,” Zeien said. For the office building roof, the newest of the marina’s structures, it applied a protective Teflon coating to ensure that it would last the solar panel’s 25-year lifespan.

Before installing the solar panels, a structural engineer had to inspect all the buildings and certify them as capable of withstanding not only the weight of the solar array but also weather factors, such as snow load and wind considerations. The engineer uncovered some small but important deficiencies, such as tightening cross braces and bolts and replacing worn or rusted out components.

Aluminum racks on top of the roofs at Kingman Yacht Center will eventually support the solar panels.

To accommodate the higher influx of power, the marina had to rebuild its entire electrical infrastructure. This project just began in October, and it took about three weeks to remove the old infrastructure and prepare for the new. Beginning toward the end of November, the rest of the electrical system will be hooked up. Zeien expects that additional work to take about three more weeks.

Show me the money
Overall the project is approximately a $900,000 investment–quite a financial load, especially in the current economy. However, Kingman Yacht Marina secured grants and rebates from the state and federal government to help subsidize the project.
Massachusetts and the local utility company were also involved with the planning process from the beginning. The utility company had to approve the new installation because it affects them too, said Zeien. In order to receive a state government rebate for a renewable energy project, “The state of Massachusetts had to review all the plans and approve a rebate for the system based on the amount of energy we’re generating,” Zeien said. Essentially, the state rebates the marina a certain dollar amount per kilowatt generated.

Thanks to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the federal government offers tax credits for renewable energy projects. Additionally, as of July 2009 through Dec. 31, 2011, the Treasury Department will offer cash rebates in lieu of tax credits. The rebate will be equal to 30 percent of the project’s costs, once the facility is up and running.

Future plans
Even with construction barely beginning on Kingman Yacht Center’s solar power project, the marina is still looking ahead at environmentally friendly projects. “The big project coming down the road is the construction of a wastewater treatment plant on site,” Zeien said. The treatment plant could potentially provide wastewater needs for the marina, as well as about 65 local homes.

In terms of Kingman’s current solar project, Zeien said, “This is just a really great time to do this.” He noted that contractors and materials are readily available and somewhat less expensive. Zeien’s advice to other marinas considering solar power: “With the money available, it’s kind of nuts not to do it,” he joked.

In the end, the marina’s net investment for the project will be about $150,000. However, the solar power will save the marina 23 percent, or approximately $28,000 per year in the energy costs. Kingman Yacht Center expects the system to essentially pay for itself in five years. “We just very excited about doing something that’s amazingly new,” said Zeien.

Anna Townshend is assistant editor of Marina Dock Age. She can be reached by phone at 847/647-2900 ext. 1308 or via e-mail at: atownshend@prestonpub.com.