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Van Snider and the Clean Marina Program
- Van Snider talks with Kirk Heinze on WJR
Michigan is home to 750 marinas and has the highest amount of registered boats for any state in the nation. Hazardous substances are inadvertently released into Michigan’s waters from boating every year, though.
Van Snider, president of the Michigan Boating Industries Association believes it’s important to protect Michigan’s waterways. Snider talks with Kirk Heinze about Michigan’s Clean Marina Program and what marinas and boaters are doing to protect Michigan’s waters.
Snider says, “It’s obvious by the growth of the green movement. All of us want to do business with responsible environmental stewards and I think that being a certified marina encourages people who are concerned about how the environment is taken care of, to do business with those people.”
The first step in becoming a certified clean marina is signing a pledge to maintain and improve Michigan’s waterways by reducing or eliminating harmful substances and practices that can damage aquatic environments. Once marinas have made the pledge, they complete a 10-step process which includes training and a self-evaluation checklist.
Snider says the program has grown from year to year.
“We now have 34 certified marinas, that may not sound like a lot, but believe me, it is not an easy thing to get certified and we have another roughly 55 other marinas that are in some stage of getting certified. So the program has had some success, but I think it has a long ways to go,” Snider says.
When the Clean Marina Program first started, people had to attend a workshop away from their marinas in order to get certified. To make things easier, the Michigan’s Clean Marina Program provides the workshop on-line. Besides marinas making a commitment to protect Michigan’s waters, the website also offers tips for boaters. Snider says having boaters become involved in the Clean Marina Program is vital for the program’s success.
“We think that how this is going to grow and develop. It’s not only that you’re you a certified marina, but we hope that we will have somebody as one of the occupants of the marina take the aggressive approach to trying to teach and enhance the knowledge of boat cleaning within the people who are staying within that facility.”
The Great Lakes is the largest system of fresh, surface water on Earth so it is important to keep them clean.
“We are so fortunate in this state to have what I call a freshwater wonderland. I’ve had the opportunity to spend a lot of time in some other areas and some other parts of the country and do a lot of boating, it doesn’t get any better than this. It is for our self interest as an industry that we protect that environment,” Snider says.
Click on the arrow above to hear Snider’s May 28 Greening of the Great Lakes conversation with Kirk Heinze. Greening of the Great Lakes airs Friday evenings at 7 on News/Talk 760 WJR.
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Another reason that Michigan is a national leader in recreational boating.