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View Full Version : $12 Million in Grants Keeps Waters Healthy, Boaters Happy


fisher16
07-11-2006, 06:50 AM
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=566 bgColor=#000000 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top align=left width=221 bgColor=#ffffff>$12 Million in Grants Keeps Waters Healthy, Boaters Happy </TD><TD vAlign=top align=left width=17 bgColor=#ffffff></TD><TD vAlign=bottom width=23 bgColor=#000000>http://news.fws.gov/images/blk_crnr.gif</TD><TD vAlign=top align=left width=288 bgColor=#000000>
</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top align=right width=566 bgColor=#ffffff colSpan=5 VSPACE="0">http://news.fws.gov/images/curv_tr.gif</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top align=left width=17 bgColor=#ffffff></TD><TD width=549 bgColor=#ffffff colSpan=4><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=500 bgColor=#ffffff border=0><TBODY><TR><TD><HR>U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director H. Dale Hall announced $12.26 million in grants to 32 states for their efforts to provide recreational boaters with additional sewage pumpout facilities. The grants assist state programs for both inland and coastal waters and are awarded through the Service's Clean Vessel Act grant program. The Sport Fish Restoration and Boating Trust Fund - supported by excise taxes paid on certain fishing equipment and boat fuels taxes - funds the program.
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"Boaters value clean, healthy waters and this program helps achieve that goal," said Hall. "The program provides an essential service to boaters and allows our state partners to meet an increasing demand for pumpout facilities."
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The Clean Vessel Act grant program helps states ensure proper disposal of millions of gallons of boater waste. For example, the program provided for the proper disposal of three million gallons of sewage from <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:State w:st="on">Massachusetts</st1:State></st1:place> last summer alone. Since the early 1990s, the program has awarded more than $120 million to states for their Clean Vessel Act programs.
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"The program is important to states, allowing them to better serve boaters and secure a more healthy aquatic environment," said Rowan Gould, Assistant Director for Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Programs. "And it is not only boaters who benefit, but anglers and all others who take enjoyment from clean waters."

</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Massachusetts- $1,000,000- The state plans to renovate or install new sewage pumpout stations at ten facilities along the coast including in Plum Island Sound and Salem Sound. Grant funds will also be used to replace up to seven motors on sewage pumpout boats. The state will also continue its education program for recreational boaters.

fisher16
07-11-2006, 06:58 AM
http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/mediacenter/images/COTW_map.jpg

Big Catch

President Sets Aside Largest Marine Conservation Area on Earth
On June 15, 2006, President Bush created the world’s largest marine conservation area off the coast of the northern Hawaiian Islands in order to permanently protect the area’s pristine coral reefs and unique marine species. The President designated the area a national monument. Permits will be required for activities related to research, education, conservation and management, native Hawaiian practices and non-extractive special ocean uses. The commercial and recreational harvest of precious coral, crustaceans and coral reef species will be prohibited in monument waters, and commercial fishing in monument waters will be phased out over a five-year period. Oil, gas and mineral exploration and extraction will not be allowed anywhere in the monument.

JayW
07-16-2006, 10:45 AM
Sounds like a good step in preserving our precious waters and resources. I would personally like to see alot of developing end in places like the Cape but with the price of land people can make huge profits.