Office of Environmental Health Services

The mission of the Office of Environmental Health Services (OEHS) is to serve and promote, through participative teamwork, Virginia’s environmental health leadership. This report focuses on the OEHS Marina Program which seeks to protect public health and the environment through the education of boaters and regulation of marina operations.

Marina Program: Protecting Virginia’s Recreational Waters
As the popularity of boating and other water related recreational activities increase in the Commonwealth, the proper disposal of sewage from boats is critical. Boat sewage is much more concentrated than domestic sewage and can be very hazardous to the marine environment. Releasing boat toilet waste into marina waters can cause health hazards including infectious hepatitis and diarrhea. It can also contribute to the death of fish and valuable marine plant life. Shellfish beds, swimming areas and fishing areas may have to be closed because of boat sewage contamination of those waters.

The Marina Regulations establish uniform requirements for the provision and operation of onshore sewage receiving and treatment facilities in order to protect public health and improve water quality. Environmental health specialists conduct more than 1,300 annual inspections of boating facilities to ensure the existence of infrastructure capable of addressing these sanitary waste issues.

Finding clean, convenient restrooms and reasonably priced sewage holding tank pump-out and dump station facilities can be a challenge for many of Virginia’s recreational boaters. The Federal Clean Vessel Act (CVA) grant, managed by the Marina Program, provides 75 percent of the funding to purchase and maintain equipment designed to remove sewage from boats. To date, nearly $3 million in CVA funding has been secured for Virginia and more than 140 sewage holding tank pump-out and dump stations have been installed.

The Marina Program leads successful outreach programs to educate recreational boaters in the Hampton Roads and Smith Mountain Lake areas each summer. The outreach programs employ college student interns through the Hampton Roads Sanitation District Commission, Old Dominion University, and Ferrum College to promote the proper disposal of vessel sewage at boating facilities. Student interns educate boaters by providing information about proper handling of boat waste and offering free sewage holding tank pump-outs. The program reaches thousands of recreational boaters annually. The table below summarizes the outreach effort.