Case sponsors cruise ship anti-pollution bill

Rep. Ed Case (D-Hawai‘i) has signed on as a cosponsor of a bill to set national standards for cruise ship wastewater discharges into the ocean.

“Much of the existing industry has acted responsibly to install and operate onboard wastewater treatment facilities,” Case said Monday. “But the sheer volume of industry growth, nationally and especially in our Hawai‘i, mandates that we now provide standard nationwide expectations.”

Principal sponsor Rep. Sam Farr (D-Calif.) represents another environmentally sensitive district, the Monterrey and Carmel coast south of San Francisco. The bill is H.R. 4101, entitled the Clean Cruise Ship Act of 2004. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) has introduced a similar bill in the Senate.

The legislation would generally prohibit the discharge of sewage, graywater(galley, dishwater, bath and laundry waste water), and bilgewater (water containing lubrication, transmission and used oil, oil sludge or slops, fuel or oil sludge, used fuel or fuel filters, or oily wastes) by cruise ships into U.S. territorial waters. The bills would implement a key recommendation of the recently-released report of the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy.

Last week, the ocean advocacy group Oceana got a letter from Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines CEO Richard Fain confirming Royal Caribbean’s commitment to equip every ship in its fleet with advanced wastewater treatment technology and to report publicly on the performance of the systems. Royal Caribbean said that their entire fleet should be retrofitted with the systems by 2008 and that all new ships purchased by Royal Caribbean in the future will be built with the systems installed.

“I applaud their move and hope other cruise companies will follow suit,” Farr said. “Royal Caribbean’s actions are an example of how good business practices can be combined with good environmental practices.”