Alaska DEC Addresses Cruise Ship Pollution Measures

Regulators seeking to prevent cruise-ship pollution should measure air quality this summer in Juneau, conduct random tests of waste discharges into Alaska's waters and complete a survey of ships' waste practices, said a draft report issued last Wednesday.

The report, released by the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), gave conclusions of work groups representing state and federal regulators, cruise companies and citizens concerned about the impacts of growing cruise crowds.

The work groups have been meeting since December to address complaints about cruise pollution - and regulatory gaps in Juneau and other ports along southeast Alaska's Inside Passage.

The report's recommendations are subject to public review, but will probably result in action this summer, DEC officials said. A public meeting is scheduled for next week in Juneau.

"We committed to investigate the emissions and discharges from the ships visiting Alaska, and to keep the public informed as we learn. We expect to have a combination of changes in operations and monitoring this summer," DEC Commissioner Michele Brown said in a news release.

"The results of this season's monitoring will help us evaluate what steps are necessary for improving practices or changing state regulations or statues," she said.

Cruise-ship crowds have grown dramatically in southeast Alaska in the past decade. In the capital city of Juneau, home to 30,000 people, more than 600,000 cruise passengers landed last summer, up from an estimated 250,000 in 1990.

Crowded conditions in the ports' downtown districts, noise from cruise passengers' sightseeing flights and cases of cruise-ship pollution have heightened concerns about impacts from the ships, which carry more passengers than the number of residents in some of the Alaska ports they visit.

Royal Caribbean and Holland America recently settled high-profile criminal and civil complaints over illegal dumping in Alaska, and six companies were cited in February by the Environmental Protection for violating air-quality standards in Alaska last summer.

Last fall, voters in Juneau approved a $5-per-passenger head tax, and voters in the borough of Haines, a community of 2,400 people at the northern end of the Inside Passage, last month approved a tax on local tours taken by cruise passengers.

Last month, the Alaska state Senate approved a $50 head tax on cruise passengers, but the House declined to consider that bill.

A Juneau attorney representing a citizen group seeking more controls on the cruise business said the working group report offered a good plan for starting regulation, but that the effort needed to be continued.

"It's a good first step," said Robert Reges of Cruise Control. The organization participated in the work group discussions and had pushed for broader action, Reges said. For example, Cruise Control members had sought to install air-quality monitors in Glacier Bay and other cruise destinations along with Juneau, he said. "There's a lot more to do, and it doesn't diminish the need for legislation," he said.

The Alaska legislature had been considering several proposals to toughen cruise-ship regulations, but passed only so me of them before lawmakers adjourned last week.

One bill requires that operators of large cruise ships, fishing vessels and cargo ships show proof of financial resources to respond to an oil spill or other environmental disaster. Another bans a type of ship paint, with chemicals considered to be environmentally hazardous, from Alaska waters.

But the legislature declined to pass provisions requiring operators of cruise ships and other large vessels to participate in the same type of oil-spill contingency planning and cleanup preparedness mandated for oil tankers.

Lawmakers instead decided to set up a task force to study the need for such rules, and their costs to businesses. - (Reuters)