Pump-Out Boat Will Return to Brick in 2012

A county-funded pump-out boat will return to Brick for the summer of 2012, as it has each seasons since 2003.

One of five such boats that will span the bay between Brick and Little Egg Harbor, the local pump-out boat will be docked at Traders Cove and serve the upper portion of the bay, according to Mayor Stephen C. Acropolis.

Each year, Acropolis said, the township receives $20,000 from the county to operate the vessel and another $5,000 for maintenance costs.

"It's been in place for the last six years, and we take advantage of it every year, said Business Administrator Scott Pezarras.

The boats remove septic waste from holding tanks on recreational boats for free, in order to prevent such waste from being emptied into the waterway, as it once had been.

The shared services agreement between Brick and the county was approved Jan. 24.

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 Tices 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.