{"id":41636,"date":"2024-05-31T12:13:43","date_gmt":"2024-05-31T16:13:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/?p=41636"},"modified":"2024-05-31T12:13:43","modified_gmt":"2024-05-31T16:13:43","slug":"free-pumpout-adapter-kits-available-to-maryland-boaters-and-marinas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2024\/05\/31\/free-pumpout-adapter-kits-available-to-maryland-boaters-and-marinas\/","title":{"rendered":"Free Pumpout Adapter Kits Available to Maryland Boaters and Marinas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Department develops kit to help keep waters clean<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_41638\" style=\"width: 387px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/05\/Pumpout-station-Sandy-Point.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-41638\" class=\" wp-image-41638\" src=\"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/05\/Pumpout-station-Sandy-Point-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Photo of device on pier at a marina\" width=\"377\" height=\"283\" srcset=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/05\/Pumpout-station-Sandy-Point-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/05\/Pumpout-station-Sandy-Point-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/05\/Pumpout-station-Sandy-Point-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/05\/Pumpout-station-Sandy-Point-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/05\/Pumpout-station-Sandy-Point.jpg 2016w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 377px) 100vw, 377px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-41638\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pumpout stations, like this one at Sandy Point State Park, provide boaters a place to cleanly and safely empty their wastewater. Maryland Department of Natural Resources photo.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Maryland Department of Natural Resources\u00a0 <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/dnr.maryland.gov\/boating\/Pages\/pumpout\/home.aspx\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Pumpout Grant Program<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is offering boat owners and marinas free adapter kits, which department staff developed to help boaters empty holding tanks securely at area pumpout stations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The kit has a plastic adapter that screws into the existing waste discharge deck fitting on a boat, which is secured by a cam lock found on most pumpout hoses. The free kit also contains instructions, protective gloves, a storage tube, and a QR code to a list of pumpout stations in Maryland.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Maryland residents can request a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/forms.gle\/X5vfy9y1Qqu35bDE6\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">pumpout adapter kit using an online form<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Supplies are limited. Kits are provided with funding from U.S. Fish and Wildlife&#8217;s Clean Vessel Act Grant funding and the Maryland Waterway Improvement Fund.<\/span><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The kits are part of the department\u2019s efforts to ensure boaters know how and where to properly empty their holding tanks, as overboard discharge is prohibited by state and federal law and punishable by civil penalties up to $2,000.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">For more than 20 years the Maryland\u2019s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has administered grants to marinas to install, operate, and maintain pumpout using Clean Vessel Act funds from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Maryland Waterway Improvement Funds.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Program funds are generated from fees and taxes paid by boaters and have built approximately 267 publicly available pumpouts across Maryland, thanks to this public-private partnership. This summer, Maryland\u2019s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) staff will be inspecting grant-funded pumpouts to assess their condition and offer assistance to marinas to replace them if needed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The program also funds three pumpout boats through the Annapolis Harbormaster, ShoreRivers, and Arundel Rivers Foundation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In addition to the free adapter kits, the department maintains <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/maryland.maps.arcgis.com\/apps\/webappviewer\/index.html?id=dbc4b232cc964fb4b284e3a74c930cc0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">an online map<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> of pumpout stations, developed a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/dnr.maryland.gov\/boating\/Documents\/ts5sewage.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Clean Boating Tip Sheet<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, and offers the free adapter kits.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">For questions about the grant program or pumpout locations, Maryland waterway users should contact Jennifer Jackson at 410-260-8772 or email <\/span><a href=\"mailto:pumpouts.dnr@maryland.gov\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">pumpouts.dnr@maryland.gov<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. To report illegal discharges, citizens should contact the Maryland Natural Resources Police at 410-260-8888.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Department develops kit to help keep waters clean The Maryland Department of Natural Resources\u00a0 Pumpout Grant Program is offering boat owners and marinas free adapter kits, which department staff developed to help boaters empty holding tanks securely at area pumpout stations.\u00a0 The kit has a plastic adapter that screws into the existing waste discharge deck<a href=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2024\/05\/31\/free-pumpout-adapter-kits-available-to-maryland-boaters-and-marinas\/\">&nbsp;&nbsp;Read the Rest&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[957,3171,33],"tags":[3197,5160,4096,2978],"class_list":["post-41636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appnews","category-boating","category-the-bay","tag-boating","tag-clean-marinas","tag-marina","tag-pumpout-operations-and-maintenance"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41636"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41639,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41636\/revisions\/41639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}