BOSTON -- Boaters who empty their onboard toilets into Boston Harbor will soon be breaking the law.

Toilet Dumping Banned In Harbor

The federal ban extends from Winthrop to Hull and includes waters within 3 miles of the shoreline. The Environmental Protection Agency officially announced the changes on Monday.

"Designating a major urban shipping waterway like Boston Harbor as a no discharge area is an important milestone in EPA's effort to protect the entire New England coastline from boat sewage,” said Robert W. Varney, regional administrator of EPA's New England Office.

The ban affects both commercial and recreational boaters. Of the nearly 9,000 boats that are docked in the Boston area, half have onboard toilets.

Instead of dumping, the boats will have to pump their toilets at one of 35 pump-out facilities.

Violators can be fined up to $2,000 by the Coast Guard and local harbormasters.

The goal of the ban is to keep beaches and harbor islands cleaner, improve shellfish stocks and protect harbor waters.

Boston is the largest urban area in the U.S. to enact such a ban.

Other areas in New England already have designated their coastal waters as No Discharge Areas or are in the process of doing so, including all state marine waters of Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Hampshire; Harwich, Waquoit Bay, Nantucket Harbor, Wellfleet, Barnstable, Buzzards Bay, Plymouth, Duxbury, Kingston, the harbors of Scituate, Marshfield and Cohasset, and Salem Sound; Casco Bay in Maine; and Lake Champlain and Lake Memphremagog in Vermont.