Water Treatment - CLIA Alaska

CLIA Ships and Waste Management

Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) oceangoing members (CLIA members) recognize that proper waste management is fundamental to the protection of the environment. Toward this end, CLIA members are to manage their wastes in accordance with sound environmental principles and in compliance with all regulatory requirements, and continually strive to minimize their waste and seek improved waste management practices.

Through the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and flag and port States, CLIA Members are subject to comprehensive, consistent and uniform international standards, as well as the national, state and/or local regulations that apply to all vessels. The standards of MARPOL (the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships) have in turn been adopted by most flag and port States and subsequently enacted into national legislation and regulation. Additional national and local legislation have been adopted by many port States. The cruise industry demonstrates its commitment to protecting the environment through the use of a broad spectrum of waste management technologies and procedures employed on its vessels.

John Binkley clean water — Former CLIA Alaska President John Binkley samples wastewater that has been treated by an Advanced Waste Water Treatment System.

Discharged Water Must Meet Drinking Water Standards

Cruise ships discharge water that is treated to some of the world’s most stringent standards. Michelle Bonnet Hale, the former director of the Division of Water in the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) who now sits on the Juneau Assembly, said it would be a step backward to require ships to hook up to community-based systems, as some have suggested. “Ironically, the discharge limits on the cruise ships are more stringent than those of the community systems. Cruise ship effluent is cleaner.”

After the Alaska State Legislature passed tough, new wastewater discharge standards in 2001, the industry invested more than $200 million to develop and install onboard technology to comply with these standards, including retrofitting existing ships. Today, cruise ships in Alaska have some of the best, most advanced wastewater treatment facilities in the world.

Now, 78% of the CLIA ocean-going cruise line fleet capacity is served by advanced wastewater treatment systems (an increase of 4 percentage points over 2021).