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Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Good read on the updates to Seattle Shoreline Management Program

Kirby Lindsay of Fremont Centrist wrote a pretty comprehensive piece on the Seattle Shoreline Managment Program. Updating this program is a huge undertaking and NMTA Members are front and center in its revision, including Margie Freeman of Fremont Tug.

Here's the link: http://fremocentrist.com/archives/237_03-16-11.html

If any of you would like to be featured - to tell your story about the Shoreline, some history or your business, contact Kirby at 206-632-3170 or at instigator@fremocentrist.com.

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Monday, March 28, 2011

EPS Seeks Public Comments to help develop management practices for recreational vessels

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is seeking public comment from boaters and other stakeholders to help develop proposed regulations, as required by the 2008 Clean Boating Act, to reduce water pollution and the spread of invasive species in the nation's rivers, lakes and other water bodies. As an alternative to permits required for commercial vessels, the act directs EPA to develop and promulgate management practices for recreational vessels. The important input received through this process will help guide the development of proposed regulations to mitigate adverse effects from recreational boat discharges, such as bilgewater, graywater and deck runoff, that may contain substances harmful to water quality or spread invasive species.

The Clean Boating Act directs EPA to take steps to limit the impact of pollution and the spread of invasive species associated with the discharge from boats. As part of the public input, EPA is also seeking information from states that already enact standards to limit the impacts of boat discharges on waterways. Based on the important input received, EPA will seek to develop appropriate management practices and performance standards that protect waterways while also working with the U.S. Coast Guard, which will establish regulations governing the design, construction, installation and use of management practices. Implementation of these management practices will allow boaters and other water enthusiasts to continue enjoying our nation's water bodies while protecting water quality.

EPA is holding listening sessions and conducting webinars to inform interested parties about the Clean Boating Act and receive public input. The listening sessions will be held in Annapolis, Md. on March 18 and April 29.

More information about the Clean Boating Act: http://tinyurl.com/4cuot5k Also: http://tinyurl.com/4ae2nu9

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Thursday, March 24, 2011

Copper bills passes out of the Environment Committee

Today marked another cutoff in the legislative calendar. Fortunately, the copper bill (Substitute Senate Bill 5436) passed out of the House Environment Committee this morning with a bi-partisan vote of 11 in favor and 2 opposing. Special recognition goes to Rep Upthegrove for his continued leadership. Now, the next step is to get it pulled from the Rules Committee.

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Tuesday, March 22, 2011

New website at State Parks and Rec

Our friends at State Parks have launched their new website for boating programs. If you have comments on it, send them to me (peter at nmta.net). Here's the site: http://www.parks.wa.gov/boating/
P.S. If you are 35-and-under, you will need your Boater Education Safety Card this year. You can access that site via the above link.

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Thursday, March 17, 2011

Grants available to help Grow Boating

The Northwest Marine Trade Association (NMTA) is pleased to announce a grant program for non-profits seeking assistance in promoting boating in the region. The grants are being awarded through the NMTA’s Grow Boating program whose mission is to increase the number of boaters and encourage current boaters to boat more often. Since 2003, NMTA has spent more than $1M to promote boating in the Pacific Northwest through various programs. The NMTA will award up to $9,000 to one or more organizations by May 31st, 2011.

Applications must fall into one the following categories:

Youth Boating Grant
Awarded to a group or organization seeking funding support for an event or program aimed specifically at getting or increasing youth participation in boating activities.

Discover Boating Grant
Awarded to a group or organization seeking funding support for an event or program aimed specifically at introducing new people to boating.

Boater Education / Safety Grant
Awarded to a group or organization seeking funding support for an event or program aimed specifically at educating new or current boaters on how to be safe on the water.

Completed applications must be received by April 29, 2011. Grants will be awarded by May 31, 2011.

To apply for a NMTA Grow Boating grant, click on http://bit.ly/NMTAgrant and download a grant application. For questions, contact John Thorburn at NMTA: john@nmta.net or 206-634-0911.

Background on NMTA Grow Boating
The NMTA established a separate program called Grow Boating in 2003 to promote the benefits and lifestyle of boating in the region. The program’s mission is to increase the number of boaters and encourage current boaters to boat more often through the development of new programs, events and promotions. NMTA’s Grow Boating program is funded by a portion of space rental fees collected by the association at its Seattle Boat Show each January.

In addition to the available grants, NMTA Grow Boating funds a promotional campaign called the Northwest Salmon Derby Series – partnering with 16 derbies around the region to promote and increase participation in those fishing events, free sailboat rides through regional events on Puget Sound, a summer-long promotional partnership with the Seafair festival, new and used boat listings and news and boating event information on SeattleBoatShow.com, and more.

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Wednesday, March 16, 2011

NMTA to host NMEA courses later this month

NMTA and the National Marine Electronics Association (NMEA) will hold educational training sessions March 22-24 in Seattle and NMTA members qualify for the discount NMEA-member pricing.

The training sessions will be held at the NMTA office in Seattle.

The courses offered:

  • Basic Marine Electronics Installer, Tuesday, March 22
  • NMEA 2000 Training, Wednesday, March 23
  • Advanced Marine Electronics Installer, Thursday, March 24

The courses run from 8:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. with the exam given at the end of
the session. Pre-registration is required. To register, click on the registration form and submit it to NMEA, or contact the national office at 410-975-9425. Course materials are sent out in advance, please sign up early.

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Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Recreation Resource Action Alert

Now is the time to contact your legislators to let them know just how important this account is for boaters.

This dedicated fund is a great example as to how government can optimally work. It was set up by citizens (by initiative in 1964), paid into by users (it’s the unclaimed gas-tax money that boaters do not seek a refund on) and it’s a dedicated account that is spent on improving boating access. The money is divvied up throughout the state. A win-win-win-win.

Which legislators should I contact? You have two options: you can pick the district where your marina is located AND where you live.

How do I get this info? Go here: http://apps.leg.wa.gov/DistrictFinder/Default.aspx

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Friday, March 11, 2011

A quick update on the copper paint bill: The public hearing on Substitute Senate Bill 5436 has concluded. When TVW gets the footage loaded, you can view it here (it’s the first bill that is heard).

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Copper bill will be heard in committee today

If you are near a computer today, you can view George Harris’ testimony on the copper-bottom bill, which will be heard in the House Environment Committee. The proceedings begin at 1:30 and here’s the link .

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Thursday, March 10, 2011

Big Boats

Here's some bar trivia: It's interesting to see that of the 270,000 registered recreational boats in Washington state there are 5,300 boats 40-feet and larger and 296 boats that are bigger than 65-feet.

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Wednesday, March 09, 2011

Tax decision on dry-stack has been released from DOR

The Department of Revenue issued their decision on dry-stack storage this week. If you have dry-stack storage, you should know that this space is no longer tax exempt (as you'll find with wet moorage). DOR ruled that dry-stack is not a rental of real estate. Instead, they will be taxing these structures similar to warehouses at the .484%. Public ports that have dry-stack will no longer have to pay the leasehold tax.

You can email me (peter at nmta.net) for more info.

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Tuesday, March 08, 2011

Reaction on Boatyard Permit is coming in

The much-anticipated Boatyard General Permit was issued last week. Now that the stakeholders have had the chance to peruse it, you may be interested to read what they have to say. Three Sheets Northwest continues to stay on top of the issue with today's story, which you can view here ("New boatyard regs draw mixed reaction").

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Monday, March 07, 2011

Important cutoff day in Olympia

It’s been pretty entertaining to hear the back and forth in today’s Olympia action. If you follow the state legislature, you will know that today at 5:00 is an important deadline. All bills that are not voted out of their house of origin by 5:00 pm take a significant step back if they are going to pass this year. (There's a saying in Olympia that no bill is dead in Olympia to that last gavel drops on the last day of session.)

One tactic the minority party can use to keep bills from coming up for a vote is to add amendments and speakers to each bill that comes up for a vote. That’s exactly what the Republicans are doing. You can follow the action here and you may just see a marine-related bill (Marina Rents Bill in the Senate or the Copper Bill in the House) come up for a vote, too.

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Friday, March 04, 2011

DOE issues the Boatyard Permit

On Wednesday, Department of Ecology (DOE) issued the NPDES General Boatyard Permit.

The most significant change between this version and the draft one, which was released in April, centered around the hardship provsion, which was removed in the final permit. This provision called for hard limits for boatyards that chose that option.

Here is the link to view the permit and DOE's response to comments.

Also, this issue received a great deal of attention in this month's Waterlife Waterlife. Take a look.

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Tuesday, March 01, 2011

Copper bill passes Senate

The Senate passed the copper-bottom phase-out bill this evening with a vote of 46-3.

Next step is to move the bill through House structure (i.e. Environment Committee, Rules Committee and Floor Action) and then have it signed by Governor Gregoire.

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