Anchorage Daily News

Are cruise ships going to be held to a much higher pollution standard than every other wastewater treatment plant in Alaska?

Evidently. And where one pollutant is concerned, it may not make much sense.

The cruise ship initiative that voters passed in 2006 says large vessels (250 or more berths) have to get a state permit to discharge wastewater. Pollutants allowed by that permit have to meet Alaska's Water Quality Standards. Pollution levels are measured at the point of discharge. Unlike every other industry in the state, no mixing zone, no "ZID" -- zone of initial dilution -- is allowed for cruise ships.

That's what the initiative requires, according to the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation. It's not the way DEC would draft a law or regulations, said Lynn Kent, head of DEC's Water Division.

The cruise industry argues that DEC is misinterpreting the requirement. Voters intended to hold the cruise industry to the same wastewater standards as every other city and industry in the state, not to single them out for more stringent treatment.

Here's the rub.

As it stands now, the cruise industry's wastewater discharges are "cleaner than all of the wastewater that comes out of the shore-based" plants, according to Ms. Kent.

The industry is willing to meet the much tighter pollution standards, with only one exception.

Copper is the catch. DEC says that the initiative requires that cruise ship wastewater contain no more than 3.1 parts of copper per billion. As it stands now, cruise ships report an average discharge of only 14.77 parts per billion. That's much lower than the discharges by any land-based plant, from Ketchikan to Anchorage. It's lower than naturally occurring copper contained in many Alaska cities' drinking water.

This doesn't make sense -- especially when the industry says it can meet stricter standards in everything else.

Enforcing that tight standard will be counterproductive, according to John Binkley of the Alaska Cruise Association. He said that if DEC's final permit -- due in time for the upcoming cruise season -- doesn't cut some slack on copper, cruise lines won't apply for a discharge permit. Instead, ships likely will head out of Alaska waters (in most cases, at least three nautical miles from shore) to discharge.

So we'll have the cruisers veer off and burn a little more fossil fuel to dump the cleanest discharge in the state outside Alaska's waters? Or, if possible, the ships may transfer wastewater to onshore municipal systems, where the treated water coming out of the plant could be more polluted than what the cruise ships send in.

There's no environmental gain in that, according to Denise Koch, DEC's cruise ship program director.

Alaska voters wanted cruise ships to conduct clean operations and they wanted ocean rangers aboard to make sure of it. Alaska voters didn't intend to quibble over copper at a dozen parts per billion.

Whether by statute or some latitude in regulation, DEC needs the flexibility to make sure the spirit of the cruise ship initiative supercedes the letter.

BOTTOM LINE: Clean cruising permits shouldn't hit a rock over a hint of copper.

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