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Ocean Trash - Sea Life is being trashed. Grab some kelp and swing into this forum
Environmentally friendly cruise ships an oxymoron?
by Beth Spracklin
Cruise ships, floating vacations laden with gourmet food and dazzling entertainment, transport some 10 million passengers to exotic islands and ports worldwide every year. And generate millions of gallons of waste water daily.
The cruise industry's environmental performance between 1993 and 1998 was summed up in a recent report from the General Accounting Office, which found that cruise ships were involved in 87 confirmed cases of illegal discharges of oil, garbage and hazardous wastes into US waters and had paid more than $30 million in fines. The GAO though, also found that 72 percent of the pollution incidents were caused by accident.
According to a study done by the Cape Decision International Services in Alaska, an average cruise ship produces between 158,000 and 272,000 gallons of graywater and treated blackwater a day. The largest cruise ships, of the 223 worldwide, are capable of carrying 5,000 people and can generate about 2 million gallons of waste water every week, Bluewater Network reported.
Bluewater Network is a national environmental organization which sent a report, Cruising for Trouble: Stemming the Tide of Cruise Ship Pollution, along with a petition on behalf of 58 other organizations to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. This petition asked the EPA to "identify and take regulatory action on measures to address pollution by cruise ships."
Cruise ships produce enormous volumes of completely unregulated or inadequately regulated waste, Bluewater charged. "It is time for the EPA to crack down on these floating cities that are having a severe impact of the environment," executive director Russell Long said.
"The cruise industry is constantly looking for new ways to improve its environmental performance," Vice President of the International Council of Cruise Lines, Angela Plott, said. Several million dollars spent on recycling efforts have introduced or improved grinders and incinerators which are designed to break down food waste, used materials and wastewater, Plott said.
A treatment system used on all the vessels for blackwater, the waste from toilets, urinals and medical facility sinks, are called marine sanitation devices. MSDs are supposed to function like a sewage plant to reduce the contamination of the waste. Long said that no one ever tested them until last summer, and the number of pathogens found in the blackwater exceeded expectations. "MSDs don't work," Long said. These malfunctioning machines are considered one of the two critical loopholes of cruise ship regulation, according to Bluewater Network.
The contaminants in raw sewage are harmful to sea life, Bluewater Network reported. When discharged untreated or ill-treated, the pathogens scar coral and can seep into the tissues of shellfish, posing a public heath risk if these are harvested and ingested.
"We wouldn't have the marine sanitation devices if they didn't work," Michael Sheehan, manager of corporate communications at Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, said. Sheehan affirmed the MSDs are all certified by the US Coast Guard which inspects them and consults with the EPA.
Plott concurred with Sheehan and said MSDs are inspected four times a year by the Coast Guard, independent of the ICCL.
A GAO marine pollution report stated; "During three of the four inspections they[the Coast Guard] perform on each cruise ship each year, they limit pollution prevention checks primarily to inspections of documents. The Coast Guard inspectors we interviewed who conduct cruise ship inspections said they rarely have time to closely examine pollution prevention equipment."
Internationally, marine sanitation devices must receive an International Maritime Organization Certificate of Type Test to be used, as stated in a 1999 U.S Coast Guard publication. This certification shows the waste management system complies with the IMOs resolutions. A MSD will be issued a letter of certification if it is tested in a USCG accepted laboratory and adheres to USCG standards.
All U.S. vessels operating within U.S. waters, which most luxury cruise liners are, must have a certified MSD. Most cruise ships are fitted with type II MSDs, which reduce the fecal coliform (bacteria found in warm-blooded animal's intestines) bacterial count below 200 parts per 100 milliliters with floating solids less than 150 milligrams per liter. These primary regulations came into effect by the U.S. Coast Guard's federal regulations two decades ago.
The waste management systems on Royal Caribbean ships are presently checked in a number of ways, Sheehan said. They use their own personnel, environmental officers stationed on ships, other engineers, the Coast Guard, as well as a private auditing firm to inspect them.
"We are concerned as anyone about the proper functioning of environmental systems," Sheehan said. "We have always been environmentally sensitive, which is why we installed environmental officers onboard our ships and external audits...the best is a blend of self regulation and government agency regulations."
The regulations in place by the government are themselves a complaint for environmentalists. The second great loophole in pollution regulation Bluewater Network criticizes is the lack of federal limitations on the disposal of graywater.
The U.S. Clean Water Act defines graywater as galley, bath and shower water, while the International Maritime Organization also includes laundry, dishwashers and washbasin drains. Both international and U.S. laws recognize the water from pools and spas, condensate from the air conditioning systems and runoff from deck washing as graywater. U.S. and International law allows cruise ships to dump graywater anywhere, even while in port if they wanted, Long said. "Graywater has the potential to be a serious problem."
This wastewater can be harmful to the environment because of high amounts of oxygen-demanding substances and nutrients that compose it, Bluewater Network reported.
Sheehan said whether or not environmental considerations will be fully and thoroughly incorporated is a question of motivation by the individual cruise lines. Royal Caribbean, a leading cruise line with a fleet of 15 ships, has new policies for the discharge of graywater. It is treated and either landed or dumped outside 12 miles off shore, he said. "It is best to discharge at a distance...to do what is best to be environmentally sound."
This and other policies have been developed by Royal Caribbean under the Save the Waves program. This program, developed in 1992, is designed to clearly explain how they are trying to reduce the creation or generation of waste material, recycle as much as possible, and guarantee proper disposal of remaining waste, Sheehan said.
The cruise industry is pledging to voluntarily not dump graywater near shore, Long acknowledges, but US flag ships operate mostly within US waters and don't have holding tanks. "They [the cruise industry] swear to god they won't dump graywater, but there's no evidence to prove what they say," Long said. Mandatory regulations the cruise lines support and abide by need to form to ensure they are making progress.
The ICCL is trying to modify guidelines and finalize the language of mandatory standards for recycling and waste management, said Plott. "The industry is prepared to take the next step to higher levels with new technology," Plott said.
Royal Caribbean Cruise Line was charged $18 million, the GAO reported, when they pled guilty to 21 counts of illegally discharging contaminated bilge waste on nine of their ships, and making false material statements to the Coast Guard.
According to GAO reports, in 1993 a Royal Caribbean ship, the Nordic Empress, was fitted with a bypass pipe which circumvented an oily water separator, allowing employees to discharge bilge waste into the oceans and bays without first processing it.
Incidents like that were not fleet wide, but were done by small groups of people on individual ships, Sheehan said. "Incidents in the 1999 prosecution occurred in the early to mid nineties...we have come a long time and way beyond those experiences." Records are different now, with wider, daily and weekly reports, he said.
Florescent light bulbs and batteries are landed, brought to shore and properly discarded, Sheehan said. There are separate containers on board the RCCL ships and the crew separates the trash bag by bag. The food was is recovered, grouped and incinerated to be used as energy on board.
The RCCL fleet is making progress. There have been no significant pollution incident since the charges in 1999, Sheehan said.
Bluewater Network believes the cruise industry is making progress but not as rapidly or as strong as it could. "It is no where near where it should be in regulating pollution," Long said. "The EPA has got to develop some realistic regulations that prevent the cruise industry from using our oceans as pollution dumping ground."
The EPA will soon be releasing a report for public comment that identifies their view on the current state of environmental management on cruise ships. This report will illustrate the influence the agency should have on the industry and what regulations to impose.
By 2003, GAO reported, cruise ship companies intend to add 33 new and possibly bigger ships to the North American market, which will increase passenger capacity by about 35 percent from 1998.
