Environment: Hysteria over Heads

The most confused polluters in America are the owners of the nation's estimated 1,500,000 pleasure boats. They contribute less than .07% of all sewage spilled into U.S. waterways, a drop in the slop bucket compared with the daily deluge from archaic municipal "treatment" plants, not to mention the wastes from waterside factories. Unorganized boatowners, though, seem an easier target than major polluters. The upshot is a flood of laws and regulations that boatmen consider arbitrary, capricious, discriminatory and unenforceable.

Most yachtsmen are eager to keep waterways clean and clear. They want to swim...

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