Clean Marina Update

With the addition of five new marinas yesterday, a total of nine have joined the Clean Marina Program in the last five months. This program, initiated by a collaboration between the Wisconsin Sea Grant and the Wisconsin Marina Association, is meant to help marinas within the state take steps to better protect their natural resources. Voluntarily taking these steps, the marinas also become safer and environmentally friendlier places for all parties involved.

Yesterday's five new additions included The Abbey Marina (Fontana), Gaslight Pointe Marina (Racine), Lakeshore Towers (Racine), Manitowoc Marina and SkipperBud’s Reefpoint Marina (Racine). Beside the nine marinas that have already become certified, there are also several marinas that have pledged "to keep Wisconsin's waterways free of harmful chemicals, excess nutrients, and debris and commit to actively pursue designation as a Wisconsin Clean Marina" (Clean Marina website).

For more details on yesterday's event, see the UW Sea Grant press release.

Photo from the Wisconsin Marina Association website.

Clean Marinas

A new resource just out: Wisconsin Sea Grant has partnered with the newly formed Wisconsin Marina Association to create a Clean Marina Program for Wisconsin. Participating marinas can reduce waste disposal costs, receive free technical assistance and attract more customers who appreciate patronizing an environmentally friendly operation.

It involves voluntary participation by the state’s 300 marinas that vow to employ pollution-prevention practices such as washing boats on land with non-polluting cleaners, minimizing use of and recycling hazardous materials, and being prepared for petroleum spills. Marinas and boatyards that go above and beyond the existing state and federal environmental regulations may become certified and promoted by the WMA as “clean marinas.”

Visit the Clean Marine web site to learn more. The full text of Wisconsin Clean Marina Best Management Practices Guidebook 2010 is included.

Clean Marina workshop fights pollution

MUSKEGON, MI -- A workshop for marina operators interested in earning a Clean Marina designation from the state of Michigan will be 1-4 p.m. Nov. 7, at Bayside Centre in Muskegon. The workshop will show marina owners how to avoid problems that could cause fuel and other chemicals used in boats to cause water pollution.

To read more about this workshop, click here.
To read more about Michigan's Clean Marina project, click here.