Cruise Industry in Hawaii

We need laws, not handshake agreements, to keep the cruise industry clean.

When you see a giant, stately cruise ship steaming offshore, it's easy to assume that all the technology that allows luxurious living to sea must also be protecting our coastal water from pollution. Sadly, that's not always the case. In fact, the cruise industry has been caught illegally dumping sewage and other pollutants in waters around Florida, Alaska, and California. The US Department of Justice has handed out over $48.5 million in fines to ten cruise lines for illegal dumping since 1993. Every major cruise line has had significant pollution-related convictions over the past decade.

So what has Hawai`i done to protect its coastal waters from cruise pollution? Very little. A voluntary pollution agreement, or Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), was signed in 2002 between the State of Hawaii and certain cruise lines. The MOU says that the cruise ships agree to discharge outside of four miles from Hawaii's coast, or within four miles if the discharge is treated to a certain level. The MOU also says that the cruise ships will abide by existing laws and industry standards.

The MOU doesn't hold water
What the MOU doesn't do is more important. It doesn't require the cruise ships to do anything. They don't have to prevent discharges from taking place in state waters. And if they do? The state cannot enforce the MOU, pursue penalties, or prevent the cruise ship from continuing to discharge.

The MOU raises two questions. First, if the industry is agreeing to follow all laws, then why is a MOU needed? Second, how do we know that the cruise industry is complying? The MOU is self-policed. In the first year of its existence, the State Health Department only made one inspection of a cruise ship. The Department simply lacks the resources-or the statutory motivation-to monitor the industry for compliance.

A handshake is just that: a handshake.
The cruise industry has flouted voluntary agreements in the recent past. In October 2002, Crystal Cruises gave a written promise that it would not discharge anything while in the Monterey Bay Marine Sanctuary. Several months later, it was learned that they had violated their written commitment. When asked why they did not report the incident, the company's Vice President of Marine Operations stated that the company had not violated the law; it had only broken its word.

Despite assurances given by the cruise industry to the Port of Seattle that Alaska standards would be followed by cruise ships in Washington state waters, the Norwegian Sun on May 3, 2003 was cited for the illegal discharge of 16,000 gallons of human waste into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The Miami-based company said it regrets the discharge into the Strait of Juan de Fuca, but it did not violate any law.

Little reason to trust
The cruise industry's environmental compliance record is shameful. In August 2002, Norwegian Cruise Lines paid a $1 million criminal fine for dumping oil and falsifying log books. In April 2002, Carnival Corp. was fined $18 million for falsifying ship records to cover up dumping of oily bilge wastewater from six ships. In 1998 and 1999, Royal Caribbean Cruises pleaded guilty to 30 charges and was fined $27 million for a fleet-wide conspiracy to dump oily bilge wastewater into U.S. waters. According to the General Accounting Office, there were 87 confirmed cases of illegal dumping from cruise ships between 1993-1998, and 18 companies (including Princess, Holland, Royal Caribbean, Carnival, and Norwegian) were found guilty of dumping oil, sewage, food waste, plastics, and toxic chemicals in hundreds of individual releases into public waters from Puerto Rico to Alaska.

California and Alaska pass cruise laws.
After experiencing the cruise industries dumping practices, both California and Alaska enacted statutes to protect their coastal waters. In June 2001, Alaska passed a law setting standards for what could be discharged into Alaska waters. The law also creates a "Coastal Protection Fund" that uses a cruise passenger fee to monitor the industry. California passed a "zero-discharge" law for all state coastal waters in September 2003.

Real protection for Hawaii's waters
Instead of placing our ocean's health in the hands of faith, Hawai`i needs a strong law to ensure that the cruise industry does what they promise. Here is what the Sierra Club, Hawai`i Chapter, believes such a law should do:

prohibit or strictly regulate the discharge of wastewater from cruise ships in state coastal waters;
create an inspection program to verify compliance with the pollution law;
set up a berth fee that will be used to fund the state inspection program; and
set penalties for noncompliance.

Leaving a big wake
Every day, an "average" ship with 3,000 passengers and crew:

Generates ~ 11.5 tons of garbage per day (passengers only) of which 75-80% is incinerated. Ash is usually disposed of at sea.
Creates ~23 gallons of toxic waste per day, including silver nitrate from photo labs, perchloroethylene from dry-cleaning facilities, and a variety of metals.
Produces ~270,000 gallons of graywater per day-water from sink, shower, laundry, and galley water wastestreams (sometimes with wastes such as blood and pharmaceuticals).
Generates ~7,000 gallons of oily bilge water every day.
Produces ~30,000 gallons of blackwater, or sewage every day and thousands of pounds of sewage sludge.
Releases as much air pollution every day as >12,000 automobiles.
Exchanges ballast water, potentially transferring invasive aquatic species.

For further information: