Winterizing a boat in Paved Ally?

[Zigo]

So over the summer we picked up a boat - it's now time to put it away.

I have to run RV glycol through the engine. This comes out of the exhaust draining onto the street. Would that be legal to have it go into the drains?


It gets into the lake one way or another?

[CompletelyNumb]

http://forums.beyond.ca/showthread.php?threadid=347543

[BlackArcher101]

No you can't have gylcol run into the storm drains. You will have to collect it and dispose of it (for free at certain drop sites).

[C_Dave45]

Pffft....RV anti-freeze is non toxic. Don't even worry about it. I just dump mine on my driveway and it soaks in. I'm 10 km's away from any water source. People freak out about the stupidest things.

[charlie2]

be discreet about it and keep the hose on hand to rinse it down and as long as its not a lot spilling out I don't think anyone would notice.

[Zigo]

That's what I thought. I have one neighbour that is mr bylaw though. Very very very weird guy(lots of stories). I'm not to sure he will even allow a garden hose in the ally.

[BerserkerCatSplat]

I know very little about marine engines, but how does the glycol get into the exhaust?

[Tik-Tok]

Originally posted by C_Dave45
Pffft....RV anti-freeze is non toxic. Don't even worry about it. I just dump mine on my driveway and it soaks in. I'm 10 km's away from any water source. People freak out about the stupidest things.

[AE92_TreunoSC]

It's wrong and illegal. Good chance a neighbor will call it in.

[bignerd]

Yep someone called in a neighbor of ours who was "dumping" something from his RV down the sewer. Police, bylaw and the hazmat team showed up.

Neighbor told me about it, but not sure what came of it.

[Abeo]

Originally posted by C_Dave45
Pffft....RV anti-freeze is non toxic. Don't even worry about it. I just dump mine on my driveway and it soaks in. I'm 10 km's away from any water source. People freak out about the stupidest things.

Don't you live right next to fish creek?

Originally posted by BerserkerCatSplat
I know very little about marine engines, but how does the glycol get into the exhaust?

The engine takes water from the river/lake for cooling, and ejects it out of the exhaust. When you winterize, you need to flush the water out and have coolant in the jackets so the block doesn't crack.

[Zigo]

We are talking about propylene glycol right? I thought it would be fine to drain out on the street? I mean you leave it in during winter. First time you start the boat up in the lake next season it all goes out right into the lake?

[Abeo]

http://www.calgary.ca/CA/city-clerks...5-Drainage.pdf

4. Prohibited
(1) No Person shall Release, or allow to be Released, any Prohibited Material into the Storm Drainage System, except as permitted in Subsection (3)


(t) “Prohibited Material” means any Substance that may, directly or indirectly, obstruct the flow of Water within the Storm Drainage System or may have an Adverse Effect and includes, but is not limited to:

(iv) gasoline, motor oil, transmission fluid, and antifreeze;

So, if it can eventually run into a drain basin, you can be fined by bylaw

[Zigo]

Guess ill be buying one of those plastic kids pools to prevent any runoff.

[Duckman]

Originally posted by Zigo
Guess ill be buying one of those plastic kids pools to prevent any runoff.

Way cheaper than huge ass fines and much hassle. the Hazmat guys can be really fussy.

But your boat should have a few drains to get most of the water out and a fill point somewhere. Check the manual.

[C_Dave45]

Originally posted by Abeo


Don't you live right next to fish creek?

A few kilometres away. Do you really think that a gallon of liquid, that soaks into my driveway will hit that creek?
Do you realize how many hundreds of thousands of gallons of dog pee, cat pee, automotive antifreeze that boils out of cars, etc, seeps into the ground, not to mention directly into storm sewers, within a few kilometre radius of the entire Fish Creek? As well as any water source?

Non Toxic RV antifreeze that we can drink is hardly going to affect that.

Good grief...it's not like your dumping a 40 gallon drum of oozing green liquid into the alley. RV antifreeze is NOT the same as automobile antifreeze.


It's non-toxic. You can drink the stuff!!!

Some goes directly into the lake when you put your boat back into the water in the spring. That's why boat people use RV antifreeze, because it's NOT TOXIC!!!!!

When your flushing it through your motor with water you can't even see what it is. It looks just like water. It's not going to hurt anything in the alley. If some of you think this will somehow harm the water of the Bow, kilometres away, you're nuts. There's more oil, engine antifreeze, dog crap, dog urine, god-knows-whatother-chemicals that drop from commercial trucks on the roadways that flow directly into storm sewers all over the city.

[Zigo]

^Yea.. I'm just going to play it safe and do it in the back lawn. - Have to move the RV and other trailer, but oh well.

[Maxx Mazda]

If you do it on your own property, no one can say shit!

Boats sound sweet when you run them out of the water. We used to have a Supreme 22' wakeboard boat with a V-Drive LS1 in it. It had this "plunger" looking thing you suctioned on around the water intake and hooked up your garden hose and you could run it out of the water to winterize it. LS1 with straight headers sounds sweet without the water to dampen it.

[Zigo]

That would sound pretty nice. No straight pipes on ours, can't scare all the fish away! Fun boat for wakeboarding too.

[VW337]

I winterize my boat in the driveway every year and have never had an issue. I also helped a friend do his yesterday in Chestermere. Like someone stated above, the RV antifreeze is completely different from automotive antifreeze. When you put your boat in the lake for the first time after you winterize it all of the antifreeze that was in the block/manifolds/heater etc runs out directly into the lake.