California Task Force Calls for Regulation of Cruise Ships

SACRAMENTO, California, August 28, 2003 (ENS) - The cruise ship industry should be subject to environmental regulation by the state of California to protect the state’s air, water and marine environment, the state mandated California Cruise Ship Task Force recommended in a report to the state legislature today.

The top priority is that cruise lines pay a state fee to fund the development of environmental monitoring and enforcement programs.

The multi-agency task force that produced the report is also calling for cruise ships to reduce air pollution and to stop dumping sewage while operating in state waters. The overall cost to the state will be minimal for most proposed actions, or funded by new or existing fees, according to the report.

California ports handled an estimated 650,000 cruise ship passengers in 2001, making California the second largest market for the cruise industry in the United States. Cruise ships average approximately five percent of all voyages entering California waters.

The sizes of cruise ships are reaching record proportions with the population of crew and passengers equaling many small towns. Some ships can carry up to 5,000 people, the task force recognizes.

Ships generate considerable quantities of sewage, gray/black water, bilge and ballast water, and solid wastes including hazardous materials, the task force report states.

Many large passenger vessels have installed Marine Sanitation Devices which must be approved by the U.S. Coast Guard. These devices treat sewage before it is discharged to the sea, however, "they frequently fail to meet current federal standards for discharge of effluent," the task force states.

A cruise ship tied up on the San Francisco waterfront. (Photo by Rich Bourgerie courtesy NOAA)

Cruise ship engines are subject to little regulatory control compared to landside sources of emissions, the task force says. "If feasible controls are not implemented on cruise ships, a greater burden will be shifted to less cost-effective strategies for land-side sources of emissions."

State laws and regulations are intended primarily to address hazardous waste facilities and generators on land, and they are not specifically designed to regulate hazardous waste management activities in the cruise industry, says the task force report, which adds that there is no state regulatory authority for disposal of solid waste, “garbage,” while a ship is at sea.

The transfer of ballast water is an important issue in California and can lead to unwanted biological invasions through the discharge of large volumes of ballast water at ports throughout the state. Ballast water often contains marine organisms that are not native to California water, and they can multiply with adverse effects to native species.

To solve these problems the task force recommends that the state cstablish an interagency cruise ship pollution prevention and enforcement program with two options for implementation.

The state could either assign a lead agency to implement the program, including on-board inspections, or it could work within existing regulatory and enforcement programs through cross-media coordination and assess a regulatory fee.

The task force assesses the cost of creating a lead agency at between $550,000 and 960,000 annually for equipment and personnel. The cross-media coordination option would cost $150,000 annually.

For a funding source to establish this program, the task force recommends a regulatory fee based on the number of cruise ship passenger berths.

The cost to establish a funding mechanism for the cruise ship prevention and enforcement program would be minimal and can be absorbed through existing programs, the task force estimates.

California Assemblyman George Nakano, whose legislation mandated the task force report, along with Assembly members George Joe Simitian and John Laird are authoring a package of three cruise ship pollution bills this session that are awaiting approval in the Senate Appropriations Committee.

One bill restricts the area in which cruise ships can discharge wastewater to beyond three miles from shore, and the other seeks to prohibit discharge within marine sanctuaries.

The third bill prohibits the burning of garbage within 20 miles from shore, and requires the use of cleaner burning diesel fuel within 25 miles of shore.

Cruise ships in the Port of San Diego, California (Photo courtesy San Diego Cruises.com)

“Passing our three current cruise ship pollution bills will get immediate results, then the next step will be to implement the comprehensive coastal protection program recommended in the report," said Shore.

The task force would continue the state’s mandatory ballast water program through legislative reauthorization. The estimated cost to run the ballast water program is $3.63 million in the first year and $3.2 million annually thereafter until January 1, 2010. The proposed budget applies to all commercial vessel voyages entering California ports or places after operating outside state waters.

The funding source to run this program would be the Exotic Species Control Fund, which is supported by fees assessed on all vessels on qualifying voyages into California waters.

The number of cruise vessels operating is growing. There are over 31 new large cruise ships under construction worldwide that are due for delivery between now and 2005. About 50 percent of those new vessels will be operating out of the United States.

Cruise ships travel the length of the California coast and now make ports of call to at least six locations in California – Los Angeles/Long Beach, San Francisco, San Diego, Avalon Bay at Catalina Island, Monterey Bay, and Humboldt Bay. These cruise ships travel between South America, Mexico, Canada, and Alaska.

Presently there are eight major cruise ship lines operating out of California, involving over 20 vessels, the task force reports. In 2002, there were approximately 280 port calls scheduled by those vessels in the ports of San Diego, Long Beach/Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Monterey. The cruise industry estimates a 25 percent increase in the number of vessels that will operate in the waters of the state over the next 10 years.

The Report to the Legislature on the Regulation of Large Passenger Vessels in California is posted at the state water board’s website at: www.swrcb.ca.gov under Water News.