BRUNSWICK | Having fallen victim to budget cuts during the recession, Georgia’s Clean Marina program is back under a new director and a new name.

Lorene Reid is reinstituting what is now the Clean and Resilient Marina program from the state’s Coastal Resources Division office in Brunswick. In spite of some generous funding — federal money is available to reimburse 75 percent of the cost — only 11 of the estimated 30 marinas along Georgia’s 100-mile coast are participating.

Under the program, marinas would install pump-out systems to empty the wastewater from holding tanks aboard vessels moored at marinas. The waste is piped or hauled to a wastewater treatment plant for disposal.

The sticking point may be the charge to boaters, Reid said.

Those who install the systems and qualify for the reimbursement must also cap their charges at $5 per pump-out, log the pump-outs and report them to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Reid said.

There is no penalty for non-compliance in the program, which is voluntary and only modestly regulated.

"The marinas that choose not to participate, we have no right to do anything or say anything to them," Reid said.

Among the participants is the Jekyll Harbor Marina that retired Brunswick City Manager Bill Weeks manages.

Weeks said Jekyll Island had an antiquated system and that the marina replaced it last summer.

"It ended up being $12,000," and with 30 to 40 pump-outs per month at $5 each, the service is not a revenue producer, Weeks said.

Because it’s on the Intracoastal Waterway, the Jekyll Marina sees a lot of transient boats and the service can be a draw, an amenity rather than an expense.

"It’s an incentive to get people to use it rather than dump their wastewater into the ocean or the marsh," Weeks said. "It’s a deal you can’t pass up."

‘CLEANER WATER’

The Clean Marina program has the endorsement of the Association of Marina Industries, which, on its website, called it "an effective tool in maintaining and promoting environmental responsibility; with the end result being cleaner water."

Dumping into a marsh is illegal, but not so in the ocean, depending on the jurisdiction.

Boaters can legally dump their tanks 3 miles offshore in federal waters, but there is a concern that many people who live aboard boats simply dump at the marina where they’re moored, Reid said.

Given marine fuel prices, a $5 pump-out is likely cheaper than sailing offshore to dump.

The impact on water quality was one reason Georgia outlawed living aboard boats until about four years ago. After marinas complained of losing business to Florida and South Carolina, the law was changed to allow the state to designate live-aboards. The law says that only marinas with adequate pump-out facilities can allow live-aboards, but some that are designated aren’t participants in the Clean and Resilient Marina program.

Reid listed some that are in the program and those that are coming on board.

St. Marys will join the program at its facilities on the waterfront. The city’s facilities are modest, however, compared to the privately owned facilities on the river. St. Marys doesn’t have as many transient boaters as other marinas because it is not on the Intracoastal Waterway.

Also, Fort McAllister State Park is putting in a pump-out system and Cumberland Harbor, a gated residential development in St. Marys, is putting in two at its marinas, Reid said.

Reid said the money, gleaned from taxes on marine fuel, pleasure boat and yacht sales and fishing gear, is available.

Using the pump-outs is becoming more user friendly, she said.

"More are coming … automated. [The boater] can pay with a debit card," she said.

Also in today’s world, a lot of people want the assurance they aren’t docking at marinas where their neighbors may pump sewage overboard.

"A lot of marinas are going to want that [clean] status to set them apart from other marinas," Reid said.

Terry Dickson: (912) 264-0405