The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced today that it will provide the California Department of Boating and Waterways with $2.23 million under the Clean Vessel Act grant program this year. With this grant, California communities plan to install 13 sewage pumpout stations, purchase one sewage pumpout boat and one sewage pumpout barge and to install as many as 11 floating restrooms throughout the state in coastal and inland waters. In addition, this money will be used to fund aquatic safety education for children and adults throughout the state.
California is among the top boating states nationally with nearly 1,100 miles of Pacific Ocean coastline and thousands of miles of boatable inland waterways. In fact, California ranked number 2 in the nation for total number of vessels with more than 963,700 registered boats in the last survey taken in 2005.
Since the programs inception in the early 1990s, the program has awarded nearly $150 million to states to install thousands of sewage pumpout stations.
