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Recreational
boaters continue exemptions under Clean Boating Act
By
Pamela A. Keene
Due in large part to the outpouring of letters to
Washington policy makers, both the US House and the Senate have
passed S. 2766, “The Clean Boating Act of 2008.” The bill
permanently restores the exemption for recreational boats regarding
permitting under the Clean Water Act.
In September 2006, a US District Court decision that
would have required 17 million recreational boaters to be subject to
the Clean Water Act spurred Congress to address the issue. If the
Clean Boating Act had not passed, recreational boaters would have
been required to be permitted under strict maintenance and operation
procedures and could have resulted in the same penalty system for
violations that’s applied to industrial boaters.
“This is a fabulous victory for common sense and it
just goes to show what can be done when the boating public, the
marine industry and its representatives in Congress row together in
a bipartisan way,” said BoatU.S. President Nancy Michelman.
BoatU.S. has worked for more than a year with the
National Marine Manufacturers Association and a broad coalition of
stakeholders to resolve the problem before the permitting deadline.
“One of the real keys to success here was our
collective ability to activate the grassroots,” said BoatU.S.
Government Affairs Director Margaret Podlich, noting that tens of
thousands of letters and e-mails were generated by boaters and
anglers over the course of the past 12 months.
BoatU.S. is the nation’s leading advocate for
recreational boat owners with more than 650,000 members. Part of its
mission is creating awareness of legislation for recreational
boaters.
For more information, visit
www.BoatUS.com.
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