Bilgee is coming to town!

By Rachel Glas,

Solano Resource Conservation District Intern

Keep an eye out this summer for Lake Berryessa’s personal protector of clean water, Bilgee, the giant walking and talking bilge pad! Bilgee and his friends will be handing out goody bags to boaters at the launch ramps all this summer. Ramps Bilgee and his friends frequent include Markley Cove, Pleasure Cove, Steele Park, and Capell Cove.

Each goody bag contains a bilge pad, a small, pillow-like pad that can be placed in the compartment of most boats. This pad soaks up any motor oil that leaks from the engine into the bilge and keeps the oil from going into the lake, where it would harm the eco-system and reduce water quality. The resorts offer free bilge pad exchange programs so remember to check your bilge pad while doing your regular boat maintenance inspections. At the end of the season, they should be returned to a hazardous waste collection can at one of the open resorts. Just one ounce of motor oil can harm up to an acre of lake water and the habitat beneath!

The goody bags also have a handy-dandy card with 99 simple ways to reduce your environmental impact on Lake Berryessa, and assorted other information on how you can do your part to reduce pollution.

With a statewide drought being declared, it is especially vital that we protect Lake Berryessa, a water source for 400,000 citizens. So be on the lookout for Bilgee, grab a bag, and help protect the lake we all know and love.