Posted by Bluewater Network on March 22, 2000
Contact: Kira Schmidt, Cruise Ship Campaign Director, Bluewater
Network, (415) 788-3666 x156
San Francisco, CA -- The environmental group Bluewater Network and 53 other organizations filed a petition today with the Environmental Protection Agency to address the titanic amount of pollution being caused by cruise ships. The petition highlights numerous loopholes and exemptions in environmental laws that should be controlling pollution by these colossal ships, and calls on the EPA to come up with ways to better monitor and regulate the renegade cruise industry. "Regulatory loopholes are allowing cruise ships to dump millions of gallons of pollutants into our nation's most sensitive waters. Cruise ships are floating cities that generate tremendous volumes of waste, and some of these wastes are completely unregulated, while others are exempt from key regulations governing other industries that discharge waste into the marine environment," said Kira Schmidt, Director of Bluewater Network's Cruise Ship Campaign.
An accompanying report released by Bluewater Network, entitled "Cruising for Trouble: Stemming the Tide of Cruise Ship Pollution," explains that a typical cruise ship on a one-week voyage generates approximately eight tons of garbage, one million gallons of "graywater" (waste water from sinks, showers, galleys and laundry), 200,000 gallons of sewage, 25,000 gallons of oil-contaminated water, and untold amounts of hazardous waste. The federal Clean Water Act makes it unlawful to discharge any pollutant from a "point source" (which, by definition, includes a ship) into US waters without a permit, but discharges of sewage and graywater from vessels are exempt from this requirement. Graywater, which contains contaminants such as detergents, cleaners, oil and grease, can legally be dumped anywhere, even though the EPA has found that graywater has the potential to cause adverse environmental effects. With regard to hazardous wastes, there is little information available on the quantities and types generated on cruise ships, and little clarity, on the part of both environmental agencies and the cruise industry, on what regulations do and don't apply to the management and disposal of these wastes. To make matters worse, the US Coast Guard's ability to detect violations and enforce marine pollution laws has proven to be woefully inadequate.
The issues raised in Bluewater's report are troubling because the $12 billion a year cruise industry has a checkered past when it comes to the environment. "The cruise industry has a track record as a repeat offender of environmental laws. Several cruise lines have been caught illegally and intentionally polluting our waters by dumping oil, garbage and hazardous wastes at sea as well as in our ports. This legacy of pollution, coupled with the inadequacy of existing regulations and oversight of the industry, clearly adds up to the need for action to address the significant pollution being caused by cruise ships," said Schmidt.
For more information about Bluewater Network's efforts,
please contact us:
Bluewater Network
Earth Island Institute
300 Broadway, Suite 28
San Francisco, CA 94133
Phone: (415) 788-3666
Fax: (415) 788-7324
Website: http://www.earthisland.org/bw
E-mail: bluewater@earthisland.org
