Personal Injury Law

Report urges cruise industry to clean up its act

By Lipcon, Margulies & Alsina, P.A.

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. ? A new report that takes a critical look at the North American cruise ship industry is calling for stringent regulations to halt the environmental pollution caused by the massive vessels.

Getting a Grip on Cruise Ship Pollution was authored by Dr. Ross Klein, a professor at Memorial University's school of social work, and an expert on the cruise ship industry. It was released by the U.S.-based environmental group Friends of the Earth.

"The report lays out the deleterious effects of pollution from cruise ships ? many having significantly negative impacts on human health and the health of the marine environment," Klein said in a statement.

Since 1998, Klein said, the cruise industry has been fined more than $60 million for environmental violations.

He said the industry has come out against a Canada-U.S. call for an emission control area that would require ships to use cleaner burning fuels because it would add between $8 and $15 a day to a passenger ticket. Even with this measure, Klein said, the fuel required would still be much dirtier than fuel used in automobiles.

His report was produced in part to provide supportive documentation for the Clean Cruise Ship Act currently before the U.S. Congress. He said he has also been contacted by members of parliament who are interested in addressing the problem in Canada.

The report says a cruise ship can produce every day more than 180,000 litres of sewage, over two million litres of grey water (produced by bathing, cooking or cleaning), 18,000 litres of oily bilge water and as much as 17 tonnes of solid waste.

"Much of this waste is discharged into the environment directly, or indirectly as incinerator smoke and ash. In addition, a cruise ship, like all ocean-going vessels, produces significant air emissions from burning large amounts of fuel and contaminates waters through ballast water that introduces non-native species," the report says.

It also says treatment of waste water has been found by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to not adequately meet water quality standards set for onshore sewage treatment plants. It adds that while the cruise industry has introduced initiatives to better deal with cruise ship waste streams, "these measures often fall short."

Klein proposes a wide-ranging set of recommendations for reform of the cruise industry, which earns billions of dollars a year around the globe.

Among them: limits on the discharge of waste and bilge water at sea; electronic transponders to alert land-based authorities when a discharge line is open as well as observers on board ships; research on the effects of untreated sewage on marine life; a requirement for cruise ships to sort other waste onboard and off-load recyclables only at ports with recycling facilities; and establish penalties for violations.

Full post as published by Cruise Ship Law on January 15, 2010 (boomark / email).