Cruise Ships Banned From Releasing Sewage Along California Coast

The Environmental Protection Agency approved a rule today banning all passenger and cargo ships over 300 tons from releasing sewage into ocean waters within three miles of California's 1,624-mile coast and the Channel Islands.

U.S. EPA Regional Administrator Jared Blumenfeld said the new rules will help reduce concentrations of pathogens, bacteria and other pollutants that can make people sick and harm coastal ecosystems.

EPA officials said the rules will prevent about 90 percent of the sewage that used to be allowed in near-coastal waters.

"By approving California's "No Discharge Zone,' EPA will prohibit more than 20 million gallons of vessel sewage from entering the state's coastal waters," Blumenfeld said. "Not only will this rule help protect important marine species, it also benefits the fishing industry, marine habitats and the millions of residents and tourists who visit California beaches each year."

Lanie Morgenstern of the Cruise Lines International Association Inc. told City News Service "the cruise industry very much supports the underlying goals of this action to protect the quality of California's waters."

The new federal rule is the first in the nation to apply to an entire state coastline and will be enforced primarily by the U.S. Coast Guard. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had previously applied similar vessel sewage discharge bans in the four California marine sanctuaries that it oversees.

The ban gives teeth to the 2005 California Clean Coast Act, sponsored by Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, who called it "a great day for the California coast, which is far too precious a resource to be used as a dumping ground."

The association's international cruise line members have been complying with provisions of SB 771 "since its entry into force in 2006, despite significant questions regarding its enforceability absent federal actions," Morgenstern said.

Blumenfeld said he expects cruise ships to discharge sewage beyond the three-mile distance from the coast, because most California ports do not have pumping stations for cruise ships to unload sewage for disposal or treatment on land.

"Our members have for many years protected the environment beyond both the U.S. international requirements through the industry's Waste Management Practices and Procedures," Morgenstern said.

"Those practices and procedures, among other things, only allow for discharges of treated sewage at a distance beyond four nautical miles, except when treated with an advanced wastewater treatment system."

Blumenfeld said retrofits to expand sewage capacity on the five dozen cruise ships that move along the California coast would cost a total of about $4 million for all of the vessels.

The ban will officially go into effect 30 days after it is entered into the Federal Register, which is likely to take place in 3-5 days.

Morgenstern said the industry had "concerns over this proposal and timely expressed those concerns during the EPA's public process."

"Irrespective of our concerns and the excellent equipment in use on our sips, our members have been meeting or exceeding this standard for quite some time prior to the action taken by EPA today," Morgenstern  said.

"We continue to find it very troubling that highly inaccurate statements continue to be made regarding treatment of this shipboard waste from cruise ships and those statements did form part of the justification for this regulation."