Potty on the Water: California Floats the Idea of ADA-Compliant Waterbourne Bathrooms
Division of Boating and Waterways Offers Floating Restroom Grants to Help Keep California’s Waterways Clean
Press release from California State Parks’ Division of Boating and Waterways (DBW):
California State Parks’ Division of Boating and Waterways (DBW) is accepting grant applications from government agencies for the purchase and deployment of floating restrooms on California’s waterways with limited landside access. A million in federal and state funding is available for approximately four Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)-compliant floating restrooms. Interested applicants to the Floating Restroom Grant Program are encouraged to review the grant guidelines and submit a grant application to DBW by 5 p.m. PST, Monday, Nov. 13, 2023.
The Floating Restroom Grant Program is available through the Clean Vessel Act, which is funded by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Wildlife Sport Fish Restoration Program and the Harbors and Watercraft Revolving Fund. About 135 restrooms are currently deployed across California. The units available for the 2023/24 grant cycle were designed by a California State Parks engineering group. Each ADA-compliant unit can be towed to shore for scheduled pumpouts or pumped out on-site by pumpout boats.
“We encourage public government agencies to join us in the effort to reduce pollution on California’s waterways,” said DBW’s Deputy Director Ramona Fernandez. “The floating restrooms are solar powered and the holding tanks capture about 500 gallons of sewage. That’s over 1 million gallons of sewage out of the state’s waterways each year.”
To be eligible for funding, grant applicants must operate a California lake or reservoir open to the public. For general information on grant requirements and to access the online application, visit dbw.parks.ca.gov/
FloatingRestroomGrants. The competitive grant applications will be scored and ranked according to need, as well as the ability to operate and maintain the floating restrooms for at least 10 years. DBW expects to announce grant recipients in spring 2024.
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This idea of floating toilets was shoved in our face sometime back. The idea then disappeared. Now the float johns are back. For me the idea is a total waste of money from the U.S. Fish Wildlife Service’s. Then they need special pump-out boats to empty them on the water or be towed to shore to be pumped out. This “crap” never ends!
But isn’t that the problem, the crap never ends?
It all depends if you eat or not.
The State of California, Department of Crap in the Water is now going to charge annual fee of $50 for a sticker to place alongside of your mussel sticker and registration sticker. Remember, you heard it here first!
it’s a 2 year registration fee and my boat was only $20 for 2 years which i just paid. I haven’t seen the mussel fee for many years now but my boat still has the sticker on it. most people don’t have 100k plus boats that have a toilet, so this is a good idea.
Hard to miss, it is the brown sticker.
It’ll probably be locked at all the most inopportune times just like all the other public toilets.
No “u” in “waterborne” 🙂