When you’re crafting, purchasing, or maintaining your vessel, it can be easy to get caught up in the exciting specifics of boat care: the equipment you use to perform daily tasks, the engines and motors your boat needs, and other aesthetic or performance upgrades.

Other systems, such as your vessel’s marine sanitation device (MSD), can often go unnoticed. However, your MSD is crucial to the enjoyable, safe function of your boat. Just imagine what would happen if you didn’t have a properly working sewage treatment system. The resulting smells, sights, and gross sludge would be unpleasant, to say the least. 

When you’re looking for sanitation units for your boat, you’re likely looking to achieve some pretty basic goals. You want the sewage treatment process to be streamlined and contained, you don’t want to have to deal with the sewage directly or notice any unpleasant aromas, and you want all discharge to be compliant with U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) or International Maritime Organization (IMO) standards so you don’t face any fines.

If your boat has a marine sanitation device, you already know how important it is for your vessel’s overall function. Having that system properly up and running will make your multiday excursions much more pleasant (not to say possible). Your sewage treatment system also ensures all of the waste that is discharged from your boat is completely up to U.S. Coast Guard or International Maritime Organization regulatory standards. 

Your marine sanitation device is a hugely important part of your boat, keeping conditions aboard your vessel sanitary, safe, and enjoyable for you, your crew, and your guests. It also helps you treat and dispose of your waste in a way that meets maritime regulations and is good for the environment.

When you’re looking for ways to make your time aboard your vessel as efficient and enjoyable as possible along with ensuring you are compliant with regulations set forth by International Marine Organization (IMO) and United States Coast Guard (USCG) , it’s a good idea to take a quick look at the status of your marine sanitation device.

Chlorine tablets are all the same, right? Nope … and the difference is more important than you might think. It’s true that they are all commodity chemicals, but several different forms of chlorine tablets are commonly available; the difference can cause serious safety, operations, legal and environmental problems for you and the crew.

Far too often people in the industry overlook the importance of chemicals in the treating of waste in their marine sanitation devices.  It seems to be very common for people to lose sight of what needs to be done to keep the system working properly and one of the easiest things to overlook is the chemicals used to do so.   Biological systems require chemicals to make “the magic happen.”   The magic described here is the treatment of waste within a type 2 wastewater system or MSD as it’s commonly referred to.  Bacteria is the source of waste treatment in these types of units.