BRANFORD — A new boat dedicated to keeping sewage out of Long Island Sound will be running on clean energy itself.
State environmental officials on Monday are helping to launch what is billed as the world’s first full-sized, solar-powered pump-out boat at a marina in Branford.
The sound is a “no discharge zone” where boaters are forbidden to dump sewage, and pump-out facilities and boats with support from the state remove more than 1 million gallons of sewage from recreational boats in the area.
The new boat was designed and built in Connecticut. Much of the funding for the boat has come from a federal grant, administered through the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.
