Islands Marine Center, Inc on Lopez Island was recognized as a “Certified Clean Marina” under the Clean Marina Washington Program on March 30, 2010.

IMC, which is now one of 47 marinas in Washington State to earn this certification, worked closely with the San Juan County Pollution Prevention Specialist and Puget Soundkeepers Alliance to qualify for the program.

Clean Marina Washington was created in 2005 as an expansion of the EnviroStars program, which provides incentives for businesses to reduce and better manage their hazardous waste. Clean Marina Washington is an incentive-based certification program in which marinas assess their operations and implement improvements to better protect the environment.

To earn the “Clean Marina” certification, IMC went above and beyond the current state-set regulations in order to ensure it leaves as small an environmental footprint as possible. IMC took a pledge to protect water quality around its facility, as well as preparing a pollution prevention plan. Some of the changes that were enacted include requiring live-aboards to keep logs of when and where they pump-out their sewer systems.

IMC also recently installed a $60,000 pump-out system so both live-aboard and transient boaters could easily and conveniently pump out their on-board sewage tanks. It is currently the only available marine pump-out system on Lopez Island.

Other environmentally friendly practices have been instituted, including switching to recycled oil-absorbent pads, and offering a wide variety of environmentally friendly merchandise options to boaters such as boat soap, wax and a copper- and heavy metal-free bottom paint.

There is also now a life jacket station on the dock, providing complimentary loaner life-jackets and a reminder of the importance they play in keeping boaters safe on the water.