If a man must be obsessed by something, a boat is as good as anything, perhaps better than most E.B. White
My last post was concerned with the hoses used with on board sanitation systems. Today's post takes marine sanitation to the next level.
Marine sanitation devices are divided into three groups. These groups are:
Type I- Flow-through device (maceration and disinfection) may be used on boats equal to or less than 65 feet in length. The effluent produced must not have a fecal coliform bacteria count greater than 1000 per 100 milliliters and have no visible floating solids.
Type II- Flow-through device (maceration and disinfection) are used on boats greater than 65 feet in length. The effluent produced must not have a fecal coliform bacteria count greater than 200 per 100 milliliters and suspended solids not greater than 150 milligrams per liter .
Type III- Holding tanks may be used on any length boat. This MSD is designed to prevent the overboard discharge of treated or untreated sewage.
The Patricia Ann was designed and built with a Type III system aboard. It has served us fine over the years. But, while she's been on the hill we've decided to upgrade her to allow us to cruise without the constant need of pumping out. The change will also allow us to cruise and/or anchor in Federal No-Discharge Zones such as those we have in the Keys.
So how are we going to do that? We're installing an Electro-Scan waste treatment system on the aft head in the master stateroom. The Type I system generates its own natural disinfectant from salt water with coated electrodes that use salt water to kill bacteria and viruses without the addition of harmful chemicals. The unit discharges overboard with treatment levels that are safe for environmentally sensitive areas.
In addition, we are plumbing the forward head directly to the holding tank with no overboard discharge.
So in normal conditions, we will use the aft head but in sensitive areas, we'll use the forward head
