
DATE: Thursday, August 14, 1997             TAG: 9708140462

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY SCOTT HARPER, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: HAMPTON                           LENGTH:   94 lines

NEED A PUMP? STUDENTS TAKE SOME CREDIT FOR EDUCATING BOATERS ON KEEPING WATERS SEWAGE-FREE.

``Most people will do the right thing . . . But still, there's a temptation to dump. We're trying to get at that.''

- PRESTON SMITH, MARINA SPECIALIST

Anne Smith wheels her sewage cart down the wooden docks at Salt Ponds Marina Resort. She's looking for a boater - any boater - to help on this slow summer weekday.

Finally she sees Peggy Myruski lounging on a cabin cruiser.

``Hi, we're giving free pumpouts,'' Smith says. ``Want a pumpout?''

Myruski shades her eyes from the morning sun and squints uncomfortably at Smith and her plastic contraption with hoses sticking out of it.

``Really,'' Smith pleads, ``it's free. It's part of a state program. You know, for boater education.''

Myruski finally smiles back. ``Free? Oh, that's great,'' she says. ``Well, c'mon over. We're just about full.''

Another day, another sewage tank to empty.

For the second year in a row, Smith and about a dozen other college students are spending their summers unloading the unsavory contents of boat toilets at marinas across Hampton Roads. All for course credit, some pocket money and plenty of environmental goodwill.

``Most people ask me, `How did you get stuck doing this?' '' says fellow sewage pumper Jessica Peregrine, an environmental health student at Old Dominion University. ``But we say, `Hey, it's cool.' This is a great job.''

The students work for $8 an hour, Friday through Sunday, during the peak boating season - Memorial Day to Labor Day. They travel to 36 marinas from Virginia Beach to Gloucester, talk to boaters, take onboard sewage to waste stations on land, and give away literature and trinkets that advise boaters against dumping their messy wastes into open waters.

``Keep Our Water Clean - Use Pumpouts'' reads one brochure. ``Don't Pass the Bucket, Bring It Ashore'' is the official Virginia slogan that appears on bumper stickers, hat pins and glossy pamphlets.

The $60,000 outreach program is a new way of combatting an old problem. Overboard dumping of untreated marine sewage has long been illegal, yet it naggingly persists - fouling waterways, contaminating shellfish beds and polluting the Chesapeake Bay with harmful nutrients.

To many boaters, however, emptying smelly waste tanks with the flip of a switch is simply more convenient than hunting down a disposal station at the end of a long day.

Too often, boaters complain, waste stations on land are broken, too difficult to use and cost too much. Some can recall stories of friends paying as much as $50 for a pumpout, or of their boat being damaged during a station run.

``It can be difficult to find something, especially if you're new to an area,'' said Royce Grimes, a boater who accepted a free pumpout from one of the student crews at Bay Point Marina in Norfolk. ``I'm sure dumping still goes on because of that inconvenience factor.''

Getting caught is nearly impossible, too. Sewage is released below the water line, from a small tank near the bottom of the boat. Most boaters also are savvy enough to dump far from shore, usually in some remote cove or creek, enforcement officials say.

``Most people will do the right thing - they go to a facility and pump out their tank,'' said Smith, one of just two state inspectors for 460 registered marinas in Virginia. ``But still, there's a temptation to dump. We're trying to get at that.''

The Hampton Roads Sanitation District is helping. The local waste agency not only sponsors the student pumpout program, but advises marinas and boaters.

George Kennedy, an HRSD environmental scientist, said the authority also is eying a new service - a pumper boat. This craft would travel around the lower Chesapeake Bay and provide a quick, on-the-water disposal alternative.

Under state regulations, all marinas are supposed to be outfitted with an onshore pumpout facility. However, about 25 percent still have not done so, according to state statistics.

There is help to overcome this, too. With money approved by Congress, Virginia can refund up to 75 percent of the cost for a new facility, which runs between $10,000 and $15,000, Smith said.

``I think one problem in all this is that people say, `Oh, it's only five gallons, I won't hurt anything,' so they dump,'' said Peregrine, a student pumper. ``But if everyone did that, God, can you imagine what the water would look like?'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

TING-LI WANG/The Virginian-Pilot

At the Salt Ponds Marina in Hampton, ODU students Jessica Peregrine,

left, and Anne Smith take care of business for a boater.

Photo

TING-LI WANG/The Virginian-Pilot

Summer pumpout program interns Jon Dickerson and Dawn Groszek roam

marinas with a portable pump to relieve boaters of their onboard

sewage. The outreach program is designed to educate boaters against

illegal dumping. KEYWORDS: WATER POLLUTION