Curb Your Car: Free oil-absorbent pads for use under parked vehicles are part of Coral Bay Community Council environmental efforts funded by a federal grant.
CORAL BAY — Free oil absorbing pads are available at Keep Me Posted and Connections East thanks to Coral Bay Community Council’s Marine Debris Removal Grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The “pollution solutions” campaign is part of the organization’s efforts to clean up current marine debris and stop future impacts on the bay, CBCC President Sharon Coldren explained.
“As part of our Marine Debris Grant we’re doing outreach in terms of reminding people about things that are environmentally good or not good,” Coldren said. “One of the things is to make sure people don’t pump their oily boat bilges into the bay and to be sure to catch any oil leaks. The same goes for people with cars.”
“We have lots of gravel parking areas around our shoreline and if you spill oil on the ground, it’s going to end up in the bay,” said Coldren.
Tall Ship Trading Company donated the printing for the oil absorbing pads which feature the campaign’s logo “Coral Bay matters, Please Fix your splatters.”
“Elliott Hooper of Tall Ship Trading Company printed them free of charge for CBCC and we’ve and distributing them at community meetings as well as at Keep Me Posted and Connections East,” said the CBCC president.
Response from the public has been supportive, Coldren added.
“I think a lot of people have been using them,” she said. “We distributed the pads at the Coral Bay Yacht Club meeting and people snatched them up. We’ve also seen people collecting them from both of our distribution areas.”
The oil leak outreach campaign is part of the larger NOAA grant aimed at removing and eliminating marine debris. The grant totals about $90,000 with an additional $50,000 in matching funds from volunteer hours and community donations.
CBCC and Coral Bay Yacht Club members took the first step this past weekend to prepare for what Coldren hopes will be next month’s abandoned boat removal project.
CBCC officials and volunteers spent Sunday morning, June 14, removing small debris from in and around Coral Bay harbor and marking larger items that could not be removed. Those larger items will be collected by a contractor who was recently selected to remove sunken and abandoned vessels from the bay.
While Coldren declined to name the contractor until all paperwork was completed, she did say that the project should be underway by July.
“We selected a contractor and we’ve submitted the documentation to Department of Planning and Natural Resources and the Waste Management Authority requesting permission,” said Coldren. “I don’t want to say who the contractor is until everything has been signed and all permission has been granted. We’re working hard on doing this in July and August.”
Stop by Connections East or Keep Me Posted to pick up a free oil absorbing pad courtesy of CBCC’s Marine Debris Removal grant.