Passing SUP, love and happiness on to our kids

Reflections of a stand up paddle board journey
By Linda Kent, communication manager, Southwest Region

As I listen to the flop-chop of water passing below my board I realize—this is happiness.

It’s my moment of Zen.

And I feel it every time I paddle out on Lake Tapps, standing atop Big Blue (aka my standup paddle board).

No two paddle outings are the same.

On summer days, I can smell the sunburn. The water’s smooth as glass. And I’m quietly happy.

More often, my fingers are so cold they burn, and I’m paddling hard into the wind to keep forward momentum. I’m still happy.

In a state of Zen, it’s easy to clear your mind and think. To ponder. To focus on what’s really important in life. I think about how I can preserve the things I love, the things that are important, and pass them on to my kids. Teaching them to paddle on the lake comes to mind, but it goes much deeper than that.

Protecting and preserving this little part of the earth that I connect with each and every chance I get—that’s the heart of it.

Be the change

There are hands-on things that I can teach my kids today. Ways we can be the change. Small things. Things that ultimately add up and make a big difference:

• We can wash our car on the grass instead of in the driveway because this ensures less pollution reaches the lake.
• We can choose not to drip and drive – fixing a leaky car means less oil and other automotive fluids wash into waterways (and it also saves money in the long run).
• We can make sure boat gas goes in the tank, not the lake.
• We can use weed killer and fertilizer in the right amounts – and at the right times. This not only helps protect fish and other critters, it lessens problems with algae.
• We can scoop pet poop -- when it rains, dog poop melts away and runoff carries it to waterways, storm drains, ditches and streams. It’s nice to have clean shoes, too.

The big picture

Then there’s the bigger picture – plans crafted to protect water-dependent uses like paddling and boating, not to mention the lake’s water quality and integrity into the future (which, as I see it, ultimately also protects property values). These shoreline master programs are crafted by cities and counties at local level and then reviewed by Ecology.

I know my kids won’t be all that interested in the planning process, but the end goal will ultimately matter to them, because they will be able to enjoy the lake into the future.

These may seem like strange things to think about as I dip my paddle into the water, but they matter.

Balance matters too – and not just the kind that keeps me on my board.

There’s more to this modern world than the environment. Nurturing growth in the economy and our communities, protecting property values and supporting all of the other things that help provide the security and success important to families like mine are just as essential as protecting our water, earth and air.

So my thoughts turn to teaching my children this: In today’s world, we can have a healthy economy and a healthy environment.

Innovative partnerships and working together to find solutions – these are the things that help us catch waves.

It may not always be an easy journey. It can get choppy as concerns arise, and it may be difficult to achieve balance at times. 

But with the old “economy versus environment” thinking (so very 1980), we risk paddling into a wind that pushes us backward. We risk losing our balance.

How we pass it on

So I want them to learn that how we preserve our environment, the way we work to protect our livelihoods -- these things are just as important as what we seek to achieve. This is how we find sustainable results.

As I ply my paddle and watch water curl past the nose of Big Blue, I hope to pass much more to my children than a moment of SUP-love and happiness.

Earth…pass it on.

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Boat grounding

Image of D’Boat on Long Island on June 24

Another boat is reported to have grounded in the San Juan Island area. This is the second in the last two weeks. Seven people were on board and two of them had to be airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

The weather has been unpredictable and the tides rather extreme. When boating, be safe not sorry.


For more information:

• KOMO News video
  
  
• Ecology's D'Boat Grounding incident page

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Stay clean and green this boating season

By Curt Hart, Communications Manager

After a long cool spring, boaters are starting to head back out on Washington’s rivers, lakes and marine waters for another season. Now is the time for boaters to consider what they can do to stay safe and protect our waters.

Ecology receives about 3,800 spill reports a year. Many oil spills occur at marinas and from recreational boats. Even small spills matter. A single quart of motor oil can potentially contaminate up to 100,000 gallons of water.

From September 2010 through April 2011, Ecology logged more than 100 small spills at ports and marinas that were too thin to clean up from the water.

If mechanical problems occur far from shore, they can put a boat in jeopardy of sinking — threatening lives and potentially contaminating our waters. We don’t want someone’s perfect day on the water turning into an environmental disaster.

Boaters can protect their watercraft and the environment by taking the following precautions:

• Tune up the boat motor, check for oil and fuel leaks, and fix them before launching the boat.



• Carefully replace the engine’s old gear oil and coolant, taking care not to spill any in the water or on the ground. Safely recycle or dispose of used oil and filters, batteries, unused paint, solvents, antifreeze and other chemicals at the county hazardous waste collection site.



• Put a clean absorbent pad in the bilge-pump area. Do not pump contaminated bilge water overboard. Use approved shore-side facilities.



• Do not discharge treated or untreated sewage in the marina basin. Use shore-side sewage dump stations or mobile pumping services if available.



• Do not overfill or top off fuel tanks. Allow for fuel expansion especially in warmer weather. Use oil absorbents or other devices to catch drips.

State and federal law requires anyone who spills oil, regardless of size, to immediately report it to Ecology at 800-OILS-911 and the U.S. Coast Guard at 800-424-8802. Acting quickly can help minimize environmental damage caused by oil and chemical products.

Anyone can report a spill or other environmental problem. See Ecology’s online resources for reporting problems that affect the environment: http://www.ecy.wa.gov/reportaproblem.html

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Floating the collective green boat

We’re a boating state for sure. So we think we have a sure-fire audience for a new website we’ve just lit up. It took Ecology about two years to build the concept of Clean, Green Boating. This is a one-stop location for boaters to jump into green boating and keep Washington waters clean and healthy.

While building this site, we were astounded to learn that Washington has more than 250,000 licensed pleasure crafts. And this doesn’t count the vast number of larger yachts registered with the U.S. Coast Guard. What if all of these boaters adopted green boating practices? We think this could really help improve the health of our waters.

In developing the site, we got a taste of how diverse boating education information is on the web. Lots of governmental agencies and organizations own a piece of boating!

For Ecology, the two key programs involved are Water Quality and Spills. Outside of Ecology, boater information comes from the Washington Parks and Recreation Commission Boating Program. There’s also the Puget Soundkeeper Alliance Clean Marina Program.

The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) cares about clean boating practices because they help keep state owned aquatic lands clean and healthy. Clean boating benefits habitat for fish and wildlife, and people who enjoy the natural world. The state Recreation and Conservation Office (RCO) has its own Green Boating website.

Now Ecology’s site contains boater information from RCO and the Department of Fish and Wildlife about how they can help combat the spread of aquatic invasive species. The list of groups that own a piece of the boating pie goes on and on. We’ve listed many of the players here.

One of Ecology’s motives in developing this site was to deliver some educational guidance about proper hull cleaning. Many boat hulls are painted with soft, toxic paints. It is illegal to clean these types of hulls in the water or near a storm drain because toxic chemicals in the paints can kill fish and aquatic life.

Did you know that you could face a fine of up to $10,000 for in-water hull cleaning of this type of hull?

Toxic boat hulls can be an environmental problem. A 2007 study by Ecology found elevated concentrations of copper inside two Puget Sound marinas. Marinas have been shown to be sources of copper to the marine environment, the primary source being antifouling paints on boat hulls. Read more about the study here: Dissolved Copper Concentrations in Two Puget Sound Marinas.

Ecology’s new website encourages all boaters to “know your hull” before you clean it. We encourage boaters to learn more about hard coatings and epoxy-based hard paints for boat hulls. These products provide a slick surface and they are safe for in-water cleaning. The surfaces discourage organism growth, last longer, and minimize harm to the environment. Best of all, these surfaces can improve your boat’s performance and save fuel costs. One of these coatings could be right for your boat.

DNR helped us write and design an educational hull-cleaning advisory poster that we would like to eventually distribute to marinas across the state. It’s great guidance to help boaters be knowledgeable about keeping toxic chemicals from getting into waters. The poster says that if your boat hull has soft, toxic paint, do NOT clean it in or near the water, or near a storm drain. To do this work yourself on land, use a tarp and vacuum sander to collect all debris, and dispose of it properly. Better yet, take your boat to an approved boatyard for this work!

Clean, Green Boating — like its green and alive name — is a living website.

We want to keep improving it over time. If you have ideas to include something we’ve missed let us know. You can email me directly at sandy.howard@ecy.wa.gov.