A program that keeps New Jersey’s coastal waters clean by providing pumpout stations for sewage from recreational boats has garnered national recognition from a boaters’ group, Commissioner Bob Martin announced today.
The States Organization for Boating Access recently awarded the DEP Clean Vessel Act Program its Program Excellence Award in recognition of the work it is doing to protect and enhance water quality along the coast.
The DEP’s Clean Vessel Act Program has 170 pumpout stations at marinas all along the Jersey coast, including many strategically stationed in the Barnegat Bay area, which also has a small flotilla of pumpout boats on patrol. This effort has removed and treated upwards of five million gallons of sewage since the late 1990s _ material that would have contaminated New Jersey’s waters.
