Stan Stephens has owned and operated Stephens Cruises out of Valdez since 1971. He served on the Prince William Sound Regional Citizens Advisory Council for 19 years and is a longtime environmentalist.
January 1, 1970
The drinking water that comes from your faucet in Anchorage contains too much copper for cruise ships to discharge it back into Alaska waters. Ditto for tap water in Fairbanks. And in Wasilla.
A new Large Commercial Passenger Vessel Wastewater Discharge General Permit issued by the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation sets standards for some trace metals so high that no community in Alaska can meet them. Neither can the cruise ships, even those from companies that have spent more than $200 million developing the most advanced wastewater treatment systems in Alaska.
And that means less business for Alaska.
The permit requirement is part of the cruise ship initiative that voters approved in 2006. That initiative imposed a number of environmental provisions, including one that requires ships to have a "discharge permit and meet all Alaskan water quality standards." The initiative also established the Ocean Ranger program.
Backers of the initiative repeatedly told voters that the ships would be held to the same standards that "every other industrial and municipal discharger" must meet and that "no new permitting program is necessary."
Just days before the elections, one initiative backer told the Alaska Journal of Commerce: "You have to play the rules we have established for everyone." That's fair.
But the permit DEC issued holds the ships to a much different standard, one that will cost Alaska communities and businesses.
As in every other state, Alaska's water quality standards factor in the use of dilution factors, such as mixing zones or short-term variances. They are not applied "at the end of the pipe," which is the exact point of release. Yet, the DEC permit for cruise ships adopts end-of-the-pipe effluent limits, which means that neither the ships nor any other discharging entity can attain them.
That means the ships will have to hold all discharges until they are out of Alaska waters. This will shorten the time in port, which will negatively impact Alaska businesses. It also means fewer ports of call, which will financially harm port communities.
The issue here is trace metals, not fecal coliform bacteria or other pathogens that caused such concerns in the past. And the issue is not the ships' treatment systems. Both state and federal regulators monitor and test ship discharges. In December, the Environmental Protection Agency released a draft cruise ship discharge assessment report that described the new systems as very "effective." A copy of the DEC summary is posted on the state Web site at www.dec.state.ak.us/water/cruise_ships/index.htm.
Alaskans should hold cruise ships to the same stringent standards as its coastal communities. That's in Alaska's best interests. But it's not in the state's best interest to shorten the time cruise visitors have ashore or to eliminate some ports of call altogether.
Alaska needs to base its permits on good judgment.
Stan Stephens has owned and operated Stephens Cruises out of Valdez since 1971. He served on the Prince William Sound Regional Citizens Advisory Council for 19 years and is a longtime environmentalist.