Lay of the Land

July/August 2004

Turning on the Cruise Control

New laws for luxury liners

Lovely scenery, the clink of champagne glasses, and all-you-can-eat buffets lure millions of Americans aboard cruise ships each year. Belowdecks, however, torrents of filth are flushed into the ocean, defiling the marine environments the tourists came to enjoy.

Some 180 cruise ships currently ply U.S. waters, with dozens of new ones launched every year. Carrying upwards of 3,000 passengers and crew, each vessel produces about 30,000 gallons of raw sewage a day–as much as a small city. But because these ships aren't held to municipal sewage-treatment standards under the Clean Water Act, the oceans are getting a raw deal. Currently, luxury liners can dump sewage once they are three miles offshore, and can release other wastewater almost anywhere except in Alaskan waters.

Pressure from environmental groups has led Congress to consider the "Clean Cruise Ship Act," which would expand the "no discharge" zones in America's coastal waters, prohibiting the dumping of sewage or wastewater closer than 12 miles from shore. Heavily touristed Alaska adopted a mandatory dumping-disclosure law in 2001, establishing effluent standards and requiring regular sampling; Washington State accepted a voluntary cleanup agreement in April; and California legislators are considering an outright ban on dumping. Activists in Alaska are now pushing for a ballot initiative to require cruise ships to apply for wastewater-discharge permits, and to impose a $50-a-head tax on passengers to pay for onshore infrastructure improvements.

The underlying problem, says Teri Shore of Bluewater Network, is that the popularity of the cruise industry has outstripped efforts to regulate it. But for luxury liners, the party may soon be over.
— Amy Ettinger

For the latest on cruise ships, see www.bluewaternetwork.org.