Mobile Vessel Sewage Pump Out Services may be temporarily suspended as of July 1, County will issue a request for proposals for Vendors to serve Anchorage areas

MONROE COUNTY, FL – The Board of County Commissioners approved issuance of a request for proposals (RFP) for the Keys-wide Mobile Vessel Sewage Pump Out Service. The agreement with the current provider, Pumpout USA, expires on June 30, 2020 and to date, the County and the vendor have been unable to reach agreement on the terms for continuing the mobile vessel pump out service.

The Board also directed staff to coordinate with Key West and Marathon for potential temporary assistance to pump out anchorage areas. Most anchorage areas have shoreside vessel sewage pump out facilities in close proximity to the anchorage areas, except Key Largo bayside anchorage areas, where there are few land-based pump-out facilities which are limited to the Atlantic Ocean side.

The existing service, free to boaters, is funded in part by County Boater Improvement Funds, which originate from surcharges on boater registrations and State funding, typically via a Clean Vessel Act grant or a state appropriation.

In 2011, the BOCC directed staff to develop a Keyswide Mobile Vessel Pump Out Service to outsource and expand an existing County pump out program operating in the Key Largo area. Monroe County partnered with the State of Florida Department of Environmental Protection Clean Vessel Act Program to create a Keyswide Mobile Vessel Pump-Out Service to provide free pump out service to anchored-out vessels in 2013. The purpose of the service is to make it easy for boaters to follow the laws that require no discharge of sewage from boaters in federally designated Marine Sanctuary waters.

Boaters who currently use the mobile vessel pump out service will need to use land-based services beginning on July 1, 2020 until a mobile service resumes. There are more than 30 land-based pump-out facilities located throughout the Florida Keys. The County has the available shoreside pump out services listed at www.monroecounty-fl.gov/pumpout.

[livemarket market_name="KONK Life LiveMarket" limit=3 category=“” show_signup=0 show_more=0]