Clean Boating Act of 2008

Floor Speech

CLEAN BOATING ACT OF 2008 -- (Senate - July 22, 2008)

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Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I rise today to support legislation that will provide a 2-year moratorium on National Pollution Discharge Elimination System permits for all commercial fishing vessels of any size and for all other commercial vessels less then 79 feet. The legislation requires the EPA, working with the Coast Guard, to conduct a 15-month study during the moratorium period to evaluate the impacts of various discharges from vessels and report their findings to Congress for the purposes of making final decisions on vessel discharge permit requirements.

Discharges incidental to the normal operation of vessels have been exempt from NPDES permits under the Clean Water Act since 1973. The National Pollution Discharge Elimination System was developed for industrial sources of pollution and was not designed for mobile sources. In 2006, the U.S. District Court for Northern California ruled that the EPA exceeded its authority under the Clean Water Act in exempting these discharges and issued an order revoking the exemption and requiring the agency to permit these discharges by September 30, 2008. The EPA has appealed the decision, but in the meantime, the agency has proposed to permit both recreational and commercial vessels under two general permits. While the EPA has proposed a general permit system that does not require individual permits, all commercial and recreational vessels would still be subject to the regulations, fines, and enforcement and citizen lawsuits of the Clean Water Act. Considering incidental discharges for these vessels have been exempt for the past 35 years, it is hard to support permitting when we have such a dearth of information about what the discharges are, especially for small commercial and recreational boats.

The commercial moratorium bill directs the EPA to study the incidental discharges of commercial vessels to determine the volume, type and frequency of various categories and sizes of vessels. It is my sincere hope that after the results of the study are reported to the Senate Environment and Public Works and Commerce Committees, and the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Congress will take action to exempt commercial vessels, as we are now doing for the recreational sector under the Clean Boating Act. The commercial vessels that will be included are commercial fishing vessels of any size and other commercial vessels less then 79 feet. I need to clarify that it is my understanding that a commercial fishing vessel is one that previously or is presently engaged in the harvesting, taking or catching of commercial fish. Many commercial fishing boats in the United States also work as fish tenders and it is my intention that the fishing vessels working in this capacity are also included in the covered vessels under the commercial moratorium bill.

I also support S. 2766, the Clean Boating Act of 2008. This legislation exempts recreational vessels from the NPDES permitting while the EPA develops best management practices for this sector. Neither category of vessels has documented discharge levels that have been shown to be harmful to the environment. The court case that required the EPA to develop this permit system was focused on invasive species and ballast water. Neither recreational nor small commercial vessels have ballast tanks and very few are ocean-going vessels.

Enactment of this legislation, together with the Clean Boating Act will provide the recreation sector an exemption and commercial boats a two year waiver with the possibility for exemptions based on the outcome of the discharge study.

It was a collaborative, negotiated process that developed the Clean Boating Act and the commercial moratorium legislation. I ask my colleagues to support both of these bills and I ask that they both pass by unanimous consent today.

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