Marinas Cited For Cleanliness
St. Mary's, Anne Arundel Sites Among Those Newly Certified

By Christy Goodman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, August 14, 2008

Buzz's Marina in St. Mary's County and two Clark's Landing marinas in Anne Arundel County are among 10 sites recently certified by the state's Clean Marina Initiative.

The voluntary program for marina operators is in its 10th year and has certified 130 Maryland sites that have voluntarily met requirements in areas such as vessel maintenance and repair, waste disposal and marina design.

"If the fish dry up around here, there goes the marina," said Mike Henderson, owner of Buzz's Marina, in Ridge. "Anything we could do to help save the bay is a good thing for us."

Henderson keeps the marina clear of debris, oil and other pollutants. His wife, Christy, "is constantly planting stuff" that adds to the natural tree line buffers that help control shoreline erosion, he said. "She likes the idea of a living shoreline," he said.

Henderson was also successful in getting customers and watermen to put the waste left after gutting their day's catches in the landfill instead of in the water. Because there isn't much tidal flushing at his marina, Henderson said, much of what was tossed from boats rotted in the water. That resulted in more nitrogen in the water and less oxygen, endangering aquatic life.

"If everybody would do just a little something different, it would mean a lot to the bay," he said.

At the Clark's Landing marinas in West River and Shady Side, the mechanic shops have been outfitted with booms that soak up potential chemical and fuel spills, said Nancy Pack, operations manager. Employees have been trained to use spill kits that are beside the piers, she said.

Scott T. Harvey, general manager at Clark's Landing, said all the marinas have special furnaces that can recycle waste oil to heat the buildings.

Tidewater Yacht Service Center in Baltimore, also a newly certified clean marina, graded the marina's eight acres so runoff would go into storm drains instead of the water, retail manager Kelly Barth said. The marina also has a building with a green roof to reduce nutrient runoff, she said.

"Because we are in the city in the Inner Harbor, we think we have a lot of responsibility to help with the reclamation there," Barth said. "It is giving back and keeping it for the next generation."

The state program aims to certify 25 percent of the state's 600 marinas as clean. The program is the most established one of its kind in the nation, said Donna Morrow, clean marina administrator for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

In 1990, federal legislation was passed aimed at reducing coastal pollution. Instead of mandates, Clean Marina was created to encourage marina operators to think about how they can be environmentally conscious, Morrow said.

"We are open to new ideas. The point of this program was to build in flexibility," Morrow said.

Also recently certified as clean marinas were Anchor Yacht Basin of Edgewater, Atlantic Marina on the Magothy of Pasadena, Baltimore Marine Center of Baltimore, Cedar Hill Marina of Bivalve, Chesapeake Yacht Club of Shady Side and Riverside Marine of Baltimore.