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Ohio Clean Marinas Program Celebrating 20 Years of Stewardship | Ohio Sea Grant

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Ohio Clean Marinas Program Celebrating 20 Years of Stewardship

12:00 pm, Thu January 30, 2025 – The Ohio Clean Marinas Program, a partnership between Ohio Sea Grant and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, is celebrating 20 years of environmental stewardship

The Ohio Clean Marinas Program is celebrating 20 years of environmental stewardship, helping marinas be proactive in keeping the state’s water and air clean.

The program, a proactive partnership among Ohio Sea Grant, the Lake Erie Marine Trade Association, and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, will mark the occasion at its 9th Annual Ohio Marina Conference in March. Meanwhile, staff are reflecting on the program’s successes over the past two decades.

A photo of a Lake Erie marina

The Ohio Clean Marinas Program assists in protecting clean water and fresh air for generations of boaters to come.

“It’s truly a partnership, and it’s been a labor of love for a lot of people over the years,” said Sarah Orlando, Ohio Clean Marinas program manager.

Ohio Clean Marinas was launched in 2004, with the aim to help marinas meet regulations while taking additional steps to keep Ohio’s waterways clean. After crafting a comprehensive guidebook and a checklist, the program certified its first official marinas in 2005. Over the years, the program has worked to get as many marinas as possible to follow best management practices and to be designated as Clean Marinas.

“The program acts as an environmental education and technical assistance initiative,” Orlando said. “Our function is to better communicate science and regulatory information to the public in an easy-to-understand way. It was an evolution over time, working together in partnership with industry, agencies, and universities.”

This year’s anniversary celebration will bring together marina owners, operators, and recreational boating professionals to explore innovative solutions while recognizing Ohio Clean Marinas’ 20 years of accomplishments.

Early on, the program was led by Ohio Sea Grant coordinators Gary Comer and Colleen Wellington. Alongside the Clean Marinas Advisory Board, the two addressed a need to help marina owners become more aware of best management practices to reduce air and water pollution on Lake Erie. In 2006, that mission expanded to boaters with the creation of the Ohio Clean Boater Program.

“I think we’ve evolved to be the intersection of the environment and recreational boating in the state of Ohio. If it’s a topic that deals with the environment, stewardship, or sustainability and boating, that’s where we are.”
Sarah Orlando

“Marinas make a big impact, but not everyone docks at one, and there are hundreds of thousands of boaters. How can we reach them?” Orlando said. “The idea is getting boaters to also commit to helping protect our water quality. That’s how the Clean Boater Program started.”

Today, the Ohio Clean Boater Program promotes environmental stewardship by making boaters more aware of the environmental impact of boating activities, getting as many boaters as possible to follow best boater practices and designating them as “Clean Boaters.” Boaters take a Clean Boater Pledge to follow guidelines informed by science.

“We are one of the few statewide programs that focus on clean boating, and to me it’s just as important as safe boating outreach,” Orlando said. “Absolutely, you need to recreate safely on Ohio’s waters, but being a responsible boater when it comes to the environment is just as important. If we pollute the water, we’re not going to have an environment to recreate in.”

Ohio Clean Marinas launched another important initiative in 2006, its Ohio Boat Shrink Wrap Recycling Program, which aimed to tackle plastic waste generated by the recreational boating industry. The program has helped facilitate the recycling of low-density polyethylene shrink wrap from marinas and nurseries in Ohio – now recycling between 80,000 to 100,000 pounds of plastic each year and over 2.5 million pounds since the program began.

a guardrail on a road with a truck in the distance

In Northern Ohio, the Ohio Boat Shrink Wrap Recycling Program collects shrink wrap from marinas and delivers it to a plastics manufacturing partner, where it is converted into guard rail blocks for Ohio highways.

In addition to support from solid waste districts and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, the shrink wrap program is further enhanced by a working group with statewide members who help spread the word about recycling in their communities.

“I call them our champions,” Orlando said. “It is incredibly grassroots-driven, and I’ve learned that’s what we need. We have this army of working group members across Ohio who are helping us build the program. It’s been enjoyable to work with people who are passionate in this space.”

Orlando became coordinator of the Ohio Clean Marinas Program in 2011, supported by funding from the Ohio Coastal Management Program and Ohio Sea Grant. Together they worked with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Parks & Watercraft to launch a statewide expansion of the program in 2015. Since the expansion, the program has supported marinas across Ohio — including at state parks and along the Ohio River.

In 2018, Clean Marinas added a tiered system to its certification checklist, accommodating for different types of marinas across the state and allowing marinas to seek Gold and Platinum status by taking additional steps to protect the environment.

“I think we’ve evolved to be the intersection of the environment and recreational boating in the state of Ohio,” Orlando said. “If it’s a topic that deals with the environment, stewardship, or sustainability and boating, that’s where we are. Our team seeks to have the knowledge, understanding, and connections to help people in that space.”

Sarah Orlando holds a clipboard with a checklist

Sarah Orlando, Clean Marinas program manager for Ohio Sea Grant, has led the Ohio Clean Marinas Program since 2011.

Ohio Sea Grant remains a key partner in the program, providing unbiased scientific information to help guide environmental BMPs. Ohio Department of Natural Resources supports the statewide promotion, recognition, and outreach to increase the number of BMPs adopted at marinas across the state. Clean Marina Program staff work to stay up to date on the science and communicate it through education, technical assistance, and trainings for marina owners and boaters.

The Clean Marinas Program also works directly with researchers to better understand problems marinas face and to find research-based solutions. For example, a collaboration between Sea Grant programs and Ohio State University researchers helped improve stormwater management at Great Lakes marinas by implementing green infrastructure. It made tangible impacts through demonstration sites, an online toolkit, water quality monitoring research, and more.

“There’s a story behind every item on the checklist for marinas,” Orlando said. “There’s either a regulation, a best practice, scientific information, or a lesson learned that informed every single one of our checklist items. It’s truly informed technical guidance, being put together through a range of information that we receive and vet.”

Orlando credited team members Tracey Coe, Ohio River Basin Program Coordinator, and Amy Torrey-Rinehart, Clean Marinas Program Administrator, for their critical work running the program. Torrey-Rinehart, who joined the team in 2023, said she’s observed the program grow even in the short time she’s been a part of it.

“I see Clean Marinas continuing to grow new initiatives, inspire more marinas to join, and connect the pieces together that contribute to the larger goal of keeping our waterways clean and safe for all,” Torrey-Rinehart said. “I love to have meaningful conversations with our marina operators that result in several creative ways to meet certification requirements. I also love the conversations and ‘ah-ha’ moments with Ohio boaters who visit our educational displays and leave with some new inspiration on safe boating and actions they can take to protect our waters through our Ohio Clean Boater Pledge.”

While Orlando serves as the Lake Erie program coordinator, Coe works with all state park, Ohio River, and inland marinas.

“Marina owners, just like all small business owners, are pulled in a hundred different directions every day. They care deeply about Ohio’s waterways, but they don’t always have time to investigate how they can be better stewards,” Coe said, “I think that this is the most valuable aspect of our program. We take the science, the laws, the regulations, and we translate the often confusing and sometimes conflicting information, so that we can guide and assist Ohio’s marinas into protecting the waterways that they love and rely on.”

“It’s been just amazing to see impact that we can have,” Orlando said. “We’re educating marina owners and boaters, but all of the practices we talk about and all of the lessons we teach are 100% adaptable at home, at work, and in the community.”

To learn more about Clean Marinas, contact Orlando at orlando.42@osu.edu.

Ohio Sea Grant is supported by The Ohio State University College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES) School of Environment and Natural Resources, Ohio State University Extension, and NOAA Sea Grant, a network of 34 Sea Grant programs nation-wide dedicated to the protection and sustainable use of marine and Great Lakes resources. Stone Laboratory is Ohio State’s island campus on Lake Erie and is the research, education, and outreach facility of Ohio Sea Grant and part of CFAES School of Environment and Natural Resources.

ARTICLE TITLE: Ohio Clean Marinas Program Celebrating 20 Years of Stewardship PUBLISHED: 12:00 pm, Thu January 30, 2025 | MODIFIED: 12:15 pm, Fri January 31, 2025
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