Anchorage Daily News

Starting this year, large cruise ships transiting Alaska waters will be the first in the country required to obtain a permit to discharge their waste in state waters.

But there's trouble brewing.

A spokesman for the cruise lines that bring nearly 1 million tourists to Alaska each year say the ships are unable to comply with the new rule.

About 30 large ships owned by a handful of major companies, including Holland America Line and Royal Caribbean International, are scheduled to tour Alaska waters in Southeast and Southcentral this summer.

Though the ships have a two-year grace period before they must meet stringent new requirements, it might not be sufficient, said John Binkley, who heads the Alaska Cruise Association.

Instead, some ships will likely detour outside of Alaska waters to discharge their treated wastewater, and that could shorten the amount of time they spend in Alaska ports, he said.

The permit, unveiled by state environmental regulators this week, "lacks common sense," Binkley said. The permit has more stringent standards for certain pollutants -- including copper -- than required in Alaska drinking water, or for industries and cities that discharge treated sewage, he said.

State regulators say the stricter standards are required by the cruise ship ballot initiative passed in 2006. Among its many provisions, the initiative required that the state develop a wastewater permit for cruise ships.

Here's the key difference: While cities and other industries are allowed to use mixing zones -- an area in the water where an elevated level of pollution is allowed -- to dilute down to an acceptable level, the initiative says large cruise ships must meet the state's water quality standards "at the point of discharge," said Lynn Kent, director of the water division for the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation.

The cruise lines are now scrambling to figure out whether to apply for the permits, Binkley said.

The key contaminants that the cruise ships will have difficulty complying with are copper, zinc, nickel and ammonia, regulators said.

The cruise ships have a grace period until 2010, but starting now, if they want to apply for a permit, the cruise lines will have to explain to state regulators how they plan to reach compliance.

The trouble with that, Binkley said, is that there doesn't appear to be a shipboard technology available to comply with the permit.

That could change: The federal Environmental Protection Agency has been evaluating several technologies that could treat ammonia and metals on cruise ships, said Denise Koch, the cruise ship program manager for the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation.

An easier solution for the cruise lines is simply not to apply for a permit.

The ships could instead discharge their treated wastewater in federal waters. One cruise line -- Royal Caribbean -- already does that to avoid any possible concerns with its dumping in state waters, Binkley said.

But other ships do not have enough tank capacity to store treated wastewater for their entire run through Southeast Alaska, and might need to detour out to the ocean and spend less time in ports, he said.

In recent years, the cruise lines have installed new sewage treatment systems on the ships traveling to Alaska to meet state and federal requirements. But those systems were designed to treat sewage, not trace metals or ammonia, Binkley and regulators said.

Find Elizabeth Bluemink online at adn.com/contact/ebluemink or call 257-4317.

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