By Rob Stapleton
Alaska Journal of Commerce

The cruise ship industry was handed a wastewater mandate by the state on March 25 that it may not be able to meet, according to officials with the Alaska Cruise Association.

Alaska voters in 2006 passed a ballot measure that requires a permit to discharge wastewater into Alaska waters. The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation issued the permit ruling, along with its own more stringent requirements.

Before this ruling, cruise ships were not required to apply for a discharge permit, while other industrial entities and municipal treatment plants were.

The new guidelines state that cruise ship discharge cannot mix with marine waters. According to the Alaska Cruise Ship Association, it is the highest standard in the world for wastewater discharge.

“We feel that this tilts the playing field after our ships have invested over $200 million in technology to achieve the highest standard for discharge water in the world,” said John Binkley, president of the Alaska Cruise Ship Association.

Cruise ship operators will have two years to meet the permitting requirement, but the rules may tip the scales in favor of sending cruises to ports abroad, Binkley said.

How this permit will affect Alaska's cruise ship tourists, which carries a million passengers to and from Alaska a year, has yet to be seen. But one alternative is to shorten stays at Alaskan ports to accommodate discharging wastewater outside the state's jurisdiction.

“This permit may force cruise ships to take on water in ports that have a lower metal content, and force them to leave stops early to sail into water outside of Alaska's jurisdiction to discharge wastewater,” Binkley said.

Cruise industry officials not only object to the permitting required by the state Department of Environmental Conservation, but they say the state has misconstrued an Alaska statute created by the 2006 ballot measure.

More than 30 cruise ships, including Holland America Line and Royal Caribbean International, still plan to sail to Alaska this summer.

Binkley said the Cruise Ship Association's interpretation of the ballot measure was not meant to treat large cruise ships differently, but to require that they comply with the same limits and standards applicable to other entities needing a permit for wastewater.

The wastewater issue and the ballot measure were inspired by Haines resident Gershon Cohen, who co-authored the ballot measure. He is a founding member of Responsible Cruising in Alaska.

“Cruise ships will be required to meet and verify compliance with all Alaska pollution rules like every other industrial and municipal discharger,” Cohen wrote in an editorial that ran in the Ketchikan Daily News in 2006.

“We have no problem with this aspect or requirement,” Binkley said. “We feel that the state is not being fair by requiring a higher standard for cruise ship discharge than, say, the quality of water taken on in Sitka.”

Officials with ADEC did not return calls from the Journal about the permit.

According to an Environmental Protection Agency study, the content of fecal coliform in the water in Sitka is 1 million parts per 100 milliliters of water and contains 157 particles of copper.

Cruise ships equipped with new discharge technology emit 14 colonies per 100 milliliters of fecal coliform and 3.1 particles of copper per million. This means that fresh water in Alaska's cities has a higher content of minerals and fecal coliform than the treated cruise ship wastewater, according to ACA documents.

“Copper is the big one for us,” Binkley said. “We are not sure how to achieve this.”

Key to the argument against the stringent permit is the absence of a mixing zone - the area where discharge mixes with saltwater - and the content of natural minerals in Alaska water taken on at ports of call. The state's permit doesn't allow for a mixing zone by cruise ships, but it does allow mixing zones for land-based municipal plants. This allows Alaska cities to treat sewage and discharge into salt water, but prohibits cruise ships from doing the same.

While the permit is seen by some as a victory over water-based pollution and the sustainability of the salmon industry, Binkley stands by his claim that after installing new waste water treatment on cruise ships, the discharge is harmless.

“I drank it; I have consumed the wastewater after its been filtered. It may not be as clear as spring water, but it doesn't taste bad,” said Binkley.

Rob Stapleton can be reached at rob.stapleton@alaskajournal.com.