18. Oak Harbor Marina

Floating Pumpout/Restroom Provides Easy Access for Boaters

Environmental change

Oak Harbor Marina purchased a floating restroom barge, which has both a pumpout and a dump station, to service the guest dockage area.

The marina

Oak Harbor Marina-city owned and operated-is the only recreational boat marina in the bay. Its sign says: "Welcome to OAK HARBOR MARINA, a marine park for use by the general public."

The marina has 133 open and 183 covered floating concrete slips, plus 96 dry-storage, garage-type sheds on land slips, and it had leased out 94% of its 316-slip capacity for the 12-month season. Four full-time employees work year-round, with three part-time hires in the summer season.

The boat mix is 40% sailboats and 60% powerboats, ranging in size from 24 feet up to 50 feet (average 36 feet). Twenty-five vessels are liveaboards. On a busy summer weekend, the manager estimates that 90% of the boats are used in this home port marina. A privately owned and operated fenced-in dry-storage yard is available for up to 40 boats on trailers or blocks.

Transient guest moorage (dockage) is available for up to 100 more boats, 38 of which are along the floating breakwater's walkway, where boats up to 40 feet LOA can tie up. The breakwater is a Wave Guard offset floating breakwater built of concrete and wood by Bellingham Marine Industries. The design includes double-wide slips along the lee side and allows people to use the offset wide surfaces as deck patios. The 10.5-foot depth and twice-daily 13-foot tidal range made the floating breakwater practical for wave protection.

Other services include launch/haulout with a hoist crane and a 100-foot-wide launch ramp, engine repair, floating fuel dock with pumpout and dump station, and ice sales. The Oak Harbor Yacht Club is located in the marina and has 300 members. Amenities for boaters in and around the marina include recently renovated restrooms, picnic tables, children's playground, barbecue area, volleyball, horseshoes, and a city park. Just a short walk away are the city's shops, motels, and restaurants.

The marina was built in 1974 and expanded its guest moorage in 1988 with the installation of the floating breakwater. Income from the marina goes into a city enterprise fund dedicated to the facility's operation and maintenance. "We are not a fishing port. Our marina is 98% pleasure craft. This waterfront had previously been a Navy base since 1942. For most of the century prior to 1942, there was nearby a commercial dock for transshipment of goods and merchandise," said David Williams, "but the dock burned in the early '60s and has not yet been replaced."

Welcome sign gives an environmental greeting to all visitors at Oak Harbor Marina. (photo by Oak Harbor Marina).

Management measures

Oak Harbor Marina complies with the marina management measures for sewage facility and maintenance of sewage facilities, as well as marina flushing, water quality assessment, habitat assessment, shoreline stabilization, storm water runoff control, fueling station design, solid waste, fish waste, liquid materials, petroleum control, boat cleaning, and public education.

Costs/benefits

Oak Harbor Marina's cost to design and build the floating pumpout/dump station/restroom barge was $58,600, paid with a Washington State grant. Annual operating and maintenance costs were $2,990 in 1995. No pumpout use fee is charged, but the funds come from the marina maintenance account. By adding the floating station, the marina avoided costs equivalent to $8,220 for commercial septic haulout service. However, since the city handled septic services, exact avoided costs are not known.

Environmental improvements

Water-Loo is the name given to Oak Harbor Marina's anchored barge with pumpout/dump station and twin restroom, which cost $58,600 to design, build, and install. The Washington State Parks and the Interagency Committee for Outdoor Recreation (another state agency) gave the City of Oak Harbor a $58,600 grant, which paid for the floating self-serve service station. The barge was manufactured by the Impero Construction Company, Bellingham, Washington, and operated under license from the American Eagle Manufacturing Company, LaConner, Washington.

Annual operating costs are $795 for labor, $975 for supplies, and $1,220 for parts and are paid out of the marina maintenance budget. While all pumpouts are free to encourage maximum use, "The city believes that the annual costs are offset by improved water quality. I feel it [the barge] is a very significant environmental enhancement," said Harbormaster Williams. "As a municipal marina, we don't deal with profit/loss in the same way [as private marinas], or at least we don't have the records to prove the impact of environmental compliance."

The anchored aluminum barge has two unisex toilets, which look like aluminum outhouses or water closets (WCs) at each end. The larger WC is in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Near the middle of the barge are two SeaLand pumpout stations, accessible to boats that tie up on either side, and a hand wash sink. Beside the smaller WC is the portable toilet dump with a wash-down hose attached (typical for dump stations) for convenient clean up. The barge contains a 3,000-gallon holding tank that is emptied an average of one to two times per month in season. The fuel dock has one Edson pumpout and dump station available with a second to be added in 1996. All pumpouts are self-serve by boaters.

"The SS Water-Loo went into service on Memorial Day 1994 and has been a tremendous success," stated Williams. "It is tied to the end of our guest dock, which is 1/4 mile from the nearest restroom ashore. The state funded our project and is now designing, building, and using similar restroom/pumpout barges on its inland lakes and coastal parks."

In 1995 a combined total of 1,700 pumpouts were done. An estimated total 40,000 gallons of boat sewage was collected from both the barge and fuel dock, an average of 23.5 gallons per boat. Currently, the sewage goes into a city truck, which transports it to the sewer plant without charge. If the city were not providing that service, Oak Harbor Marina would have paid $8,220 for a commercial septic removal service.

Other improvements and benefits

Signs are used extensively to educate people about good practices. The first one greets boaters: "Welcome to the OAK HARBOR MARINA - an aquatic resource dedicated to the preservation of our marine heritage through CLEAN BOATING!" Other improved practices include recycling of oil, paper, cardboard, cans, and batteries. The fueling operation was upgraded to reduce spillage, and the dock has oil spill gear available. Boaters are requested to use oil-absorbing bilge pads. A fish-cleaning station is available for customer use. A set of BMPs were developed and published and are used to train staff and tenants.

"We also enforce what people are doing. To help pay for all the clean marina enhancements, we implemented an environmental compliance fee in 1995 charging $1.00 per month on each boat stored in a slip or on land, for a total of $4,600. This money goes in a special account to purchase expendable supplies, such as rubber gloves and coveralls when cleaning the pumpout barge, and oil absorption pads for the fuel dock. We lost some folk who said that boating was getting too expensive. The cost of our tidelands lease from the state has gone up. However, we have 150 on our waiting list for larger slips."

Oak Harbor Marina's floating restroom and pumpout barge --the SS Water Loo -- with a protable toilet dump station (photo by Oak Harbor Marina).

Oak Harbor Marina has a tidal grid that traditionally was used to scrape and repaint boat bottoms during low tide. Grids work well only on coasts with significant tidal range, and Oak Harbor Bay has maximum ranges from +13 feet down to -3 feet. All waste scraped off each hull fell into the water. Because of concern over high amounts of paint metals in the sediments, Oak Harbor stopped bottom repairs on the grid and posted a sign:

Tidal grid is CLOSED - except for: surveys, through-hull/rudder/prop work/zinc changes [capture all residue]. Grid may NOT be used for: hull maintenance [washing/scraping], any sanding or painting. Use of grid must be scheduled through Harbormaster.

Generally across America, tidal grids have been eclipsed by modern boat hauling equipment, such as travel lifts and hydraulic trailers. "Boat repairs in the bay are now serviced by a mobile contractor who is setting the [environmental] standard," stated Williams. "For haulouts and hull repairs, the nearest places where travel lifts are available are at boatyards in and round the cities of Anacortes and LaConner [listed on a handout given to every boater], each about 15 water miles away."

"We also made our environmental program more noticeable with education. Everyone supports and believes in the principle of 'clean boating'; however, the doing of it often seems difficult. Every new tenant gets an information packet of rules, including Sound Information: A Boater's Guide, provided by the Puget Sound Keeps Alliance. Oak Harbor Marina's Environmental Policies, for example, state that no bottom work can be done [on land] unless over tarps," explained Williams. Clean boating practices are listed for engines and bilges, boat fueling, painting and varnishing, surface preparation, hull maintenance, sewage, solid waste disposal, and chemical storage. An excerpt from the boater's guide reads:

These are our "best management practices," and all Marina tenants are expected to comply with them. In essence, they are all common sense approaches to boat maintenance and operations, which have the common goal of keeping bad things out of the water. Please review them, and use them as you enjoy boating in this most beautiful corner of the world....As we continue to work the very important clean boating issues, your inputs are always welcome. The basic requirement is that we all take reasonable and prudent actions to keep foreign matter from polluting the waters from which we derive so much enjoyment.

Since 1982, Oak Harbor Marina has hosted a successful public aquaculture project by the Washington Department of Fisheries to boost the Coho and Chinook salmon fishery. Hatchling salmon, from the state, are placed in two special rearing pens floating in marina slips and are raised and released when 5- to 6-inch-long fingerlings. This program runs twice a year at no cost to the marina except fish feed. The pens were built by volunteers with materials paid for by a state grant. The project has proven to be "a local community attraction, with many school classes visiting each year, and popular with our boaters," said Williams. It also demonstrates the environmental compatibility of Oak Harbor Marina, its boats, and salmon aquaculture. "To date, over 420,000 salmon have graduated from this program to be released into Puget Sound. Judging by the returns we see each year, and the reports of local fishermen, this program has been very successful."

"Oak Harbor was designated a 'bubble fishery' by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife because we have participated in the state's salmon-rearing project for so many years. The waters inside Oak Harbor Bay are left open for salmon fishing year-round, even when local waters outside the bay are closed."

Equipment sources

• Restroom barge: Impero Construction Company, 2041 East Bakerview Road, Bellingham, WA 98226.

• Pumpouts: On barge: SeaLand Technology, Inc., P.O. Box 38, Fourth Street, Big Prairie, OH 44611.

• On fuel dock: Edson International, 460 Industrial Park Road, New Bedford, MA 02745-1292.

• Boater environmental publication: Sound Information: A Boaters Guide; 1994, Puget Sound Alliance, 130 Nickerson, Suite 107, Seattle, WA 98109.

• Floating breakwater: Wave Guard system; Bellingham Marine Industries, Inc., 1001 C Street, P.O. Box 8, Bellingham, WA 98227.