What are the environmental considerations of the In-Water Mooring Station?
The principal benefit to the environment of the MOORING STATION is the elimination of bottom paint and hull cleaning. This means less toxic chemicals in the waters, canals, boatyards and marinas. Less copper paint to remove and dispose of and less sediment dredged from boat basins contaminated with copper. Currently, the primary means to deal with marine fouling is to apply an anti-fouling paint. The most widely used bottom paints are toxic, ablative and leeching pesticides and are killing our waterways world-wide. California is concerned about toxic buildup and is acting to cut emissions. The European Union has asked the International Maritime Organization to ban all toxic boat bottom paints. Copper-based bottom paints contain between 20% and 76% copper – a toxic pesticide that affects marine life. The federal regulatory standard for dissolved copper is 3.1 parts-per-billion (ppb). The highest concentration of heavy metal pesticides is in marinas where there can be hundreds of slips a
