Cleaning bilgewater

LAKE WALLENPAUPACK, PA — Members of the Lake Wallenpaupack Watershed Management District (LWWMD) pack bags with more than 30 pieces of useful boater information to be distributed by marinas around the lake. To further their message about keeping the lake clean, an oil eradicator provided by Clean Water Solutions is included in each bag.

“It is a unique, non-toxic foam carrier in which there is a tablet with billions of oil-eating microbes,” said Alex Zidock, LWWMD project chairman. “The whale-shaped foam is used instead of a bilge sock to soak up contaminants in the bottom of boats. The oil-eating microbes turn petroleum pollutants usually found in the bilges of boats into water-soluble fatty acids, which becomes food for fish when the bilge water is pumped overboard.”

Shown packing the bags, provided by the Lake Wallenpaupack Marine Trades Association (LWMTA), are Carolyn Gwozdziewyez, left, Karen Mandeville, Gene Shultz, Meg Welker, Pete Snyder and Charles Sexton. The bags will be distributed to anyone who purchases a new or used boat from participating LWMTA members while supplies last.