East Shore Health Department Receives State Grant In Advance of 2017 Boating Season

By Jack Kramer, Correspondent

The East Shore Health Department, which serves Branford, Guilford, East Haven, New Haven, and West Haven has received a $255,000 grant to purchase two pumpout vessels and a new solar/electric pumpout vessel for the 2017 boating season.

DEEP announced that during the 2016 boating season, pumpout facilities and pumpout vessel programs removed a record level of more 1.267 million gallons of recreational marine sewage from vessels in Long Island Sound and Candlewood Lake.

“With the support of Connecticut boaters and pumpout facility operators, we have once again exceeded our previous volume of waste removal, and increased by 8 percent the amount of recreational boat waste removed,” said DEEP Commissioner Robert Klee.

“The goal is to keep building on this successful program to keep our waters clean and healthy, and to continue to provide excellent water-based recreational opportunities in Connecticut.”

For the 2017 boating season, 47 Connecticut marine facilities will receive $1,228,600.73 in funding under the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection annual Federal clean Vessel Act (CVA) program.

In an effort to improve water quality in navigable waterways within Connecticut this program, which is managed through the DEEP’s Boating Division, provides federally funded matching grants for qualifying projects that provide boat sewage disposal facilities, more commonly known as pumpouts.

Nine of the 47 grant recipients will receive funding for the construction of new or replacement pumpouts. The remaining projects fund operation and maintenance of land based pumpouts and mobile pumpout boats.

Funding for this program, known as the Clean Vessel Act (CVA) program, comes from the Sport Fishing and Boating Trust Fund, which is supported by excise taxes on certain fishing and boating equipment and boat fuels.

DEEP partners with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and issues grants to marine facilities and programs through the CVA Grant Program. This program helps keep coastal waters clean and safe for recreation by safely disposing of millions of gallons of boaters’ sewage annually.