The EPA recommends that unless you can treat your wastewater on board, you should contain it on your vessel until it can be disposed of properly on land. Disposing of sewage at sea should be seen as a last resort, rather than the only option.
Pump-out Facility
Wherever possible, use marinas that provide wastewater pump-out stations and other services to help you protect the environment.
In Hobart, TasPorts has a designated sewage pump-out facility on the lower landing outside Constitution Dock. To arrange access to this facility please contact Southern Operations on 03 6222 6037 from 7am – 4pm daily or after hours contact VTS on VHF channel 12 or 16.
Alternatively port users can organise sewage pump-out by contacting either Veolia Environmental Services (03 6244 0000) or Toxfree (1300 869 373).
Disposing of sewage from your boat
If you must dispose of sewage in a waterway or at sea, you can legally do so if you follow the rules for Small boats (<16 people) and Large boats (16 or more people).
Small boats (<16 people)
Small boats are allowed to:
1. Discharge urine into any waterway if it isn't mixed with faeces.
2. Discharge any sewage into seawater if:
- There aren't any visible floating solids
- It doesn't cause any prolonged discolouration of the water
And the boat is:
- not on an inland waterway
- in water deeper than 5m
- more than 500m from any operating shellfish farm
- more than 500m from any beach, and more than 120m from any other shore
- more than 120m from any person in the water
- outside any marina, designated mooring area or canal
- the Tamar estuary downstream of the Batman Bridge
- the Derwent estuary downstream of the Bowen Bridge
- outside any of the other areas marked on these accompanying Boat Sewage Discharge maps
- outside any other waters within 1 nautical mile (1,852 meters) of any land, including islands
Large boats (16 or more people)
See Part 4 of the Sewage Management Directive and refer to the accompanying Boat Sewage Discharge maps
For more information
Visit the Sewage Management Directive page to read the Directive and for more detailed information on boat sewage management:
Boat Sewage Management Fact Sheet (627Kb)
