Boaters will be required to empty their portable potties and pee buckets at designated pump-out stations.
The state is cracking down on waste disposal in the canal system.
Syracuse, NY - Boaters will no longer be permitted to discharge sewage into New York’s 524-mile canal system, including Onondaga and Oneida lakes, state and federal officials announced today.
Instead, boaters will be required to empty their portable potties and pee buckets at designated pump-out stations.
Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Pete Grannis referred to the old method as “a disgusting practice” at a news conference in Waterford, where the Erie Canal empties into the Hudson River.
But under the federal Clean Water Act, boaters are permitted to dump treated waste from portable potties into connecting waterways like the canal unless a “no discharge zone” has been established, said Jim Tierney, assistant DEC commissioner. States are required to ensure there are sufficient pump-out stations along waterways before they can create those zones.
The DEC proposed making the canal a “no discharge zone” a year ago and the federal Environmental Protection Agency recently approved it, said Yancey Roy, a DEC spokesman.
The zone includes the Erie, Cayuga-Seneca, Oswego and Champlain canal systems.
Contact Mike McAndrew at mmcandrew@syracuse.com or 470-3016.