The placard

Twenty six feet, five by eight inches

On this page11

Who needs one The size Where it goes What it says And in which language Why a packaging property cares It is a notice, not a control And the threshold tells you who is expected to have oil aboard The bilge pump station is the other location So store oil where the bilge is not References

26 feet is the threshold and the placard has dimensions. Both are in the regulation.

Who needs one

"A ship, except a ship of less than 26 feet in length, must have a placard". Which puts a great many recreational boats inside the requirement.

The size

"At least 5 by 8 inches, made of durable material". A notice printed on paper and taped to a bulkhead is not made of durable material.

Where it goes

"In a conspicuous place in each machinery space, or at the bilge and ballast pump control station". Each machinery space, so a twin-engine boat with two spaces needs two.

What it says

"Discharge of Oil Prohibited", and the notice that the Federal Water Pollution Control Act prohibits the discharge of oil into the navigable waters of the United States, with "substantial civil penalties and/or criminal sanctions including fines and imprisonment".

And in which language

The placard "must be printed in the language or languages understood by the crew". Which is a real requirement on a boat with a mixed crew and usually trivial on a family boat.

Why a packaging property cares

Because the placard is posted exactly where the oil is stored and handled. The regulation has already decided that the machinery space is the risk, and that is where your containers live.

It is a notice, not a control

A placard prevents nothing. It exists so that nobody can claim they did not know, which tells you how the enforcement regime views the hazard.

And the threshold tells you who is expected to have oil aboard

A 26 foot boat with a machinery space, an oil change interval and a bilge pump. That is precisely the customer for the lubricant leaf of this group.

The bilge pump station is the other location

Named as an alternative, which is a clue: the regulation treats the pump as the discharge path. What gets into the bilge gets out of the boat.

So store oil where the bilge is not

Which is a stowage decision rather than a packaging one, and it is the single most useful thing to say alongside a container: a sealed container in a tray, above the bilge, chocked so it cannot move.

References

33 CFR 155.450. "A ship, except a ship of less than 26 feet in length, must have a placard", "at least 5 by 8 inches, made of durable material", fixed "in a conspicuous place in each machinery space, or at the bilge and ballast pump control station", stating "Discharge of Oil Prohibited" and setting out that the Federal Water Pollution Control Act prohibits the discharge of oil into the navigable waters of the United States, on pain of "substantial civil penalties and/or criminal sanctions including fines and imprisonment". The placard "must be printed in the language or languages understood by the crew". law.cornell.edu

40 CFR 110.3, discharge of oil in such quantities as "may be harmful" under section 311(b)(4) of the Clean Water Act. Such discharges are those that "(a) Violate applicable water quality standards" or "(b) Cause a film or sheen upon or discoloration of the surface of the water or adjoining shorelines or cause a sludge or emulsion to be deposited beneath the surface of the water or upon adjoining shorelines". law.cornell.edu

Written from 40 CFR 110.3 and 33 CFR 155.450, and from the catalog as it stood on 18 October 2026. The Vessel General Permit, the Vessel Incidental Discharge Act and in-water hull cleaning rules are named and not summarized; state and local rules on boat washing and marina discharge vary by water body. Whether a specific product may be used in the water is a question about that product and that water.