County-Funded Pump Out Boat Will Return to Barnegat Bay This Summer

As the weather warms, lots of people are thinking about getting their boats ready for summer. So are Ocean County officials, who for the 13th year will launch five boats on Barnegat Bay this summer to keep waste from boat toilets from being dumped into that waterway.

One of the boats will be docked at Traders Cove Marina, just north of the Mantoloking Bridge, in Brick. The Brick Township council approved an interlocal agreement with the county to provide the boat at its Feb. 15 meeting.

On Wednesday, the county’s freeholders authorized spending $100,000 to keep the fleet of pumpout boats on the bay from Memorial Day to Labor Day during the 2011 summer season.

It’s not all their money paying for the boats, explained county Administrator Carl W. Block. The Ocean County Utilities Authority is contributing $50,000 toward the effort, and if the state has the money, it will provide $12,500. The OCUA also treats the waste pumped by the specially equipped boats from holding tanks on pleasure craft.

The pump-out program started when Paul D. McLain of Toms River, a retired state Department of Environmental Protection official, became concerned about the number of boats moored at Tice’s Shoal, one of few deepwater anchorages in the flats behind Island Beach State Park.

The bay was a convenient place for boaters spending the weekend to dump their waste, McLain feared. Congress had already created a program to fund pump-out boats and pump-out stations for recreational craft in marinas.

Block said all five of the boats acquired by the county have been paid for through that Clean Vessel program. Dozens of pump-out stations have been put in marinas the same way.

“We front the money. They reimburse us,’’ Block explained.

Since 1998, when the first Circle of Life boat was operated out of Seaside Park, it has serviced 15,805 boats, collecting 256,453 gallons of waste.

Brick’s Bay Saver, launched in 2003, is not far behind. It has collected 231,925 gallons of waste and served 10,930 boats since then. A second boat was added in Seaside Park in 2008, and two others are based at the Tuckerton Seaport. Together they have served 35,498 boats, collecting 672,016 gallons of waste.

“The pump-outs are free to any pleasure boat. We assume because they are out there that they could put the waste in the bay,’’ Block said.

Because of the pump-out boats and marina facilities, the discharge of boat waste into the bay has been prohibited by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency since 2003. The no-discharge zone stretches from the Point Pleasant Canal south to Little Egg Inlet, which separates Ocean and Atlantic counties.

Skippers can call VHF channel 9 to have their holding tank pumped out.

Block said there will also be a new addition to the Ocean County Navy, with the freeholders set to award a contract for “about $150,000’’ Wednesday to Alpha Boats Unlimited of Weedsport, N.Y. for an aquatic weed harvester.

It will be operated by the county Parks Department and replace a combination dredge and weed harvester that is now out of service, Block said.

“This one is smaller and able to operate in shallow water,’’ he said.

The harvester will be used in fresh water lakes in the county parks system, he said. It will get its maiden voyage at Lake Shenandoah in Lakewood, helping clear weeds there.