Environmental Threats Of Cruise Liners

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02 Nov 2017

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HMD 376D

Sustainability in Hospitality Industry

Water Pollution – Sewage, waste, toxics, run- off Cruise lines

Individual Project Report

For: Dr Madeleine Hevera

By: Steven Lu Jun Guang (Rebel 14)

April 16, 2013

Executive Summary

For a long time coming, the oceans and its inhabitants have been aiding us in the fight against global warming and providing us with an abundance supply of food selflessly. But that is all set to disappear with the seemingly increasing pollution from the cruise industry due to a range of factors that this paper is going to enumerate, explain and resolve.

The cruise industry has been around for almost 5 decades and yet its popularity is increasing rapidly, especially among the retirees. With increasing popularity, more berths and cruise liners with larger capacity are being introduced annually.

The U.S Environmental Protection Agency detailed that cruise liners routinely produce 5 common types of pollutants: sewage, greywater, oily bilge water, solid waste and hazardous waste. In order to keep watch over the polluting activities by cruise liners, existing efforts include the enforcement of the law and the mandatory usage of Marine Sanitation Devices.

In spite of these efforts, the issue of cruise liners pollution is still a growing concern. Results have shown that the devices are failing and cruise companies continue to contravene the law.

But, there are feasible remedies. If we could bring all the different companies under one umbrella, it would expedite the governing process and better instil compliance such as making it compulsory for all cruise liners to install more advanced sanitation devices. The rapid advancement of technology is catching up to the illicit activities of these irresponsible cruise companies. The installation of sensors could be utilized to monitor them.

Potential passengers can do their part by choosing greener cruises and thereby causing the profit-driven cruise companies to forsake their quest for larger sized liners in favour of greener ones. The stakes here are too high, the future of the Earth and its inhabitants is at risk. The situation can still be contained provided that the aforementioned plans are implemented.

Table of Contents

Executive Summary

1. Introduction 3

2. Brief History of the Cruise Industry 4

3. The Environmental Threats of Cruise Liners 5

3.1 Sewage 5

3.2 Greywater 5

3.3 Oily Bilge Water 6

3.4 Solid Waste 6

3.5 Hazardous Waste 7

4. Addressing the Pollution 7

5. Marine Sanitation Devices 9

6. Case Studies 10

7. Recommendations 11

8. Conclusion 12

Bibliography 13

1. Introduction

The health of the Earth's coral reefs are on the decline. And it's supposed to hit rock bottom before the end of this century, according to Professor Peter Sale, the head of the United Nations University Institute of Water. (Brake, 2011) Should Professor Peter's prediction come true, humans born in the next century will not have the opportunity to see any coral reef in the oceans. That is, if there are still any humans left.

The truth is, the oceans are very vital to the survival of our planet. Coral reefs that are found within the oceans are like the rainforests of the sea, they provide both food and shelter for many underwater species. One of them being the prominent phytoplankton, a type of tiny marine plants. They are responsible for the production of more than half the oxygen that we take in and absorb massive amounts of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) which helps to slow global warming and climate change. Thus, contributing to the creation of a sustainable environment on Earth. (PETIT, 2013)

Yet, we humans are continually destroying something so essential to us with the recreation which has come to be known as cruising. The cruise industry by many accounts is a sizeable source of pollution to the ocean and its inhabitants. On average, a cruise liner introduces as much as 30,000 gallons of blackwater, 255,000 gallons of greywater and 7,000 gallons of oily bilge water into the sea every day. These waste carries bacteria that are detrimental to the health of both humans and marine life. Coral diseases have also been found to be linked to human sewage or otherwise known as blackwater in recent studies. (Oceana, Needless Cruise Pollution: Passengers Want Sewage Dumping Stopped)

This paper will trace the environmental impacts of cruise liner, first, delving into the brief history of cruise liners. Next, identifying the various pollutants introduced to the sea by them. And subsequently, the various practices and regulations that are in place to curb the problem will be examined. Last but not least, a list of recommendations to improve the situation.

2. Brief History of the Cruise Industry

Knowing is half the battle. In order to get to the root of the problem, we will first look at a brief history of the cruise industry. Found in 1965, Princess Cruises, was the first of today's present cruise lines to concentrate on the vacation cruise market. Other major players worth mentioning today, Carnival Cruise Lines has its roots traced back to 1972 while Royal Caribbean was also launched in the late 1960s. (Klein R. A., 2009)

Statistics has shown that the amount of North Americans going on a leisure cruise has multiplied rapidly since the appearance of vacation cruising some 40 years ago from 600,000 to 1.4 million passengers annually in the 1970 to 1980 period to 13.2 million annually in the 2000 to 2008 period. (Klein R. A., 2009)

Clearly, there are no sign of the cruise market cooling down. In fact, analysts have projected that the cruise market is set to become larger. Over a 4-year period from 2008 to 2011, 38 new liners with more than 100,000 berths were constructed. This easily translates into an increase of 5 million additional passengers on a yearly basis. (Klein R. A., 2009)

Of course, with the rapid development of technology, coupled with the strong demand in vacation cruises, the dimensions of liners have also expanded significantly. Cruise liners in the past could only ferry 750 to 1000 passengers but those figures are now a thing of the past as the years goes by. Oasis of the Seas, introduced by Royal Caribbean in 2009, weighs 220,000 tons and is capable of ferrying 7,000 passengers, not counting the accompaniment of over 2,000 crew members. (Klein R. A., 2009)

Naturally, as the size and the capacity of the cruise liners grow, the environmental threats that they bring to the ocean are being magnified as well. The Oasis of the Seas is akin to an average town floating on the sea when it is at full capacity. One can only imagine the amount of pollution it creates and the Oasis is just the tip of the iceberg.

3. The Environmental Threats of Cruise Liners

In 2008, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a damaging report on assessing cruise liners discharge The report looked at the five common types of pollutants produced by cruise liners, namely, sewage, greywater, oily bilge water, solid waste and hazardous waste. (Agency, Cruise Ship Discharge Assessment Report, 2008)

3.1 Sewage

Sewage or otherwise known as black water refers to biological wastes and the wastes from washrooms and other containers that are meant for containing wastes. In a survey conducted by EPA in 2004, on average, a single cruise liner produced from 1,000 to 74,000 gallons of sewage daily. (Agency, Cruise Ship Discharge Assessment Report, 2008)

Biological wastes are harmful because of their potential to be a carrier of many types of pathogens. Hepatitis A and E are just a few. They pose a very serious threat not just to marine life but to humans as well. When humans consume raw or ill-prepared seafood that are contaminated by the sewage, they are at risk of being infected with the said pathogens. (Agency, Cruise Ship Discharge Assessment Report, 2008)

3.2 Greywater

Greywater on the other hand refers to wastewater from the bathrooms, laundry and kitchens. EPA claims that the estimated greywater produced by a single cruise liner on average ranged from 36,000 to 249,000 gallons on a daily basis. (Agency, Cruise Ship Discharge Assessment Report, 2008)

Similar to sewage, greywater may contain many harmful pathogens as well. Likewise, their impact should not be neglected. (Agency, Cruise Ship Discharge Assessment Report, 2008)

3.3 Oily Bilge Water

Oily bilge water is made up of cleaning fluid, lubricants, oily fluids, water and other similar waste that are found in the most bottom part of a cruise liner and originate from mechanical components of the liner. Due to its many sources, it is difficult to track the amount of oily bilge water being produced by cruise liners. The most accurate data for reference is by the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation. In 2000, they reported that cruise liners cruising in Southeast Alaska generated 1,300 to 5,300 gallons of bilge water every 24 hours. (Agency, Cruise Ship Discharge Assessment Report, 2008)

Oily bilge water contains oil that is a highly deadly compound which is extremely harmful to marine life. Oil that are thick and dense does not fade away, they need to be cleaned up which costs manpower and financial losses. On top of that, they have the harmful ability of coating animals that live in the oceans. Again, it can bring the harm back to humans by ingestion of seafood that are contaminated by it. (Agency, Cruise Ship Discharge Assessment Report, 2008)

3.4 Solid Waste

Solid waste are basically unwanted items such as plastics, glass and food that are discarded by the cruise liners or its passengers. Taking reference from a 1999 Royal Caribbean Cruises Environmental report, a liner can produce up to 15 tons of waste in a single day. The amount of solid waste that a single liner can generate is directly related to its size and its total passengers capacity. The bigger it is, the more it carries, the more waste it generates and the more harm it will bring to the environment. (Agency, Cruise Ship Discharge Assessment Report, 2008)

The waste are generally non-hazardous but when dumped into the ocean, they become marine debris. Marine life and humans at large are at risk of being trapped by marine debris. Also, marine life might mistake them for food and accidentally consume them and develop adverse effects on their health. (Agency, Cruise Ship Discharge Assessment Report, 2008)

3.5 Hazardous Waste

Hazardous waste are waste that encompass harmful compounds. They are usually kept on the liners until they anchor at a dock before they can legally dispose of them at a landed facility. (Agency, Cruise Ship Discharge Assessment Report, 2008)

Due to the strict laws governing hazardous waste disposal, it is not usually a major concern with regards to environmental impact. However, if there is a lapse in the management of the disposal of hazardous waste, it can cause a very lethal impact on the environment. (Agency, Cruise Ship Discharge Assessment Report, 2008)

4.Addressing the Pollution

Now that we have identified the pollutants, we will take a look at the various rules and regulations that are in place to address the issue and to determine whether the existing efforts are sufficient. (Oceana, Protect Our Oceans: Stop Cruise Ship Pollution)

Oceana, the biggest international organization fighting for ocean conservation, released a report on United States laws and regulations governing cruise liners pollution. According to the report, the laws and regulations are seriously lacking when it comes to policing cruise liners pollution. (Oceana, Protect Our Oceans: Stop Cruise Ship Pollution)

When it comes to sewage, liners are given the go ahead to dump treated sewage and greywater practically anywhere they go except in Alaska. It is also not against the law to release untreated sewage as long as they of a 3 miles radius away from the shore. Furthermore, it is mandatory under the Clean Water Act in the United States for cruise liners to feature waste treatment systems, known as Marine Sanitation Devices (MSDs). In addition, they are required to keep track of their own discharges. (Oceana, Protect Our Oceans: Stop Cruise Ship Pollution)

However, according to Annex V of the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, otherwise known as MARPOL 73/78, cruise liners are disallowed from dumping solid waste such as plastics anywhere at all or any drifting waste within a 25 miles radius from the shore. (Oceana, Protect Our Oceans: Stop Cruise Ship Pollution)

Oil on the other hand, cannot be released within in a 12 miles radius from the shore unless they leave no shiny particles behind and meet the requirement of no more than 15 parts per million. Outside the 12 miles radius, ships are allowed to dump oily bilge water as long as they measures less than 100 parts per million. Under the regulations, ship are required to store the oily waste until they can be gotten rid of at an onshore facility. Similar to sewage, liners have to record the amount of oil that are disposed of. (Oceana, Protect Our Oceans: Stop Cruise Ship Pollution)

Hazardous wastes are not allowed to be dumped anywhere according to the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. The liners have to store them on board until they dock before they can unload them at the relevant disposal facilities on land. (Oceana, Protect Our Oceans: Stop Cruise Ship Pollution)

Ballast water, which is not commonly identified as liners' pollutant, is water that is used as a floating mechanism to prevent the liners from capsizing. It is a common practice for cruise liners to load ballast water at a port and recycles them at another port of call. This will lead to the accidental relocation of non-native marine life and this can be very costly and damaging to the resident marine ecosystem. Yet, only California and the Great Lakes states rule that liners must recycle their ballast water before entering a 3 miles radius from their shore. (Oceana, Protect Our Oceans: Stop Cruise Ship Pollution)

5. Marine Sanitation Devices

Marine Sanitation Devices (MSDs) are equipments installed on board a liner that collects, stores, treats or disposes sewage. Under Section 312 of the Clean Water Act, liners that either have lavatories on board or are cruising in United States territories are required to have operational MSDs certified by United States Coast Guard on board.

MSDs are jointly regulated by the EPA and the United States Coast Guards. (Agency, Marine Sanitation Devices, 2012) MSDs are classified into three different models. Type I models are devices that use thinning and sterilization to treat the sewage. They are installed on liners that are 65 feet or less in length. The wastewater produced in this case must have no noticeable drifting articles and have a fecal coliform bacteria count lesser than 1000 per 100 milliliters (ml). (Agency, Marine Sanitation Devices, 2012)

Type II models may utilize biological treatment and sterilization while some may just works like the former, to treat the sewage. There are no restrictions to the length of the liners that can employ this technology. The result required is a fecal coliform bacteria count below 200 per 100 ml and no more than 150 mm of total suspended solid per liter. (Agency, Marine Sanitation Devices, 2012)

Type III models are by far the simplest of them all. They are essentially a storage tank that stores sewage before they can be dumped on shore or at sea, legally. Similar to Type II models, there are no prerequisites for installation. There are no performance indicators except that it must be capable of preventing the accidental discharge of sewage. (Agency, Marine Sanitation Devices, 2012)

Type II model is widely considered to be the most effective model for waste treatment. However, samples from Alaska Cruise Ship Initiative in Alaska in 2000 proved otherwise. Samples were collected from 21 cruise ships and only 43% met the standard for fecal coliform bacteria while only a mere 32% of the samples passed the standard for total suspended solids. The Coast Guard attributed this to the improper operating of the MSDs or the failure to maintain them. (Agency, Cruise Ship Discharge Assessment Report, 2008)

6. Case Studies

Ross Klein, a professor at Memorial University of Newfoundland with a fond interest in the cruise industry had recorded in details, a list of known environmental cases involving cruise liners. Between 1992 and 2012, there were more than 200 known instances of cruise liners caught polluting the ocean one way or another. (Klein R. )

The environmental impact of cruise ships was thrown into the spotlight in 1999 when Royal Caribbean pleaded guilty to 21 charges for illegal dumping of oil, hazardous chemicals and the obstruction of law when they lied to the U.S. Coast Guard. As a result, they paid a colossal fine of US$18 million. (Justice, 1999)

3 years later, another major industry player, Carnival Corporation was similarly fined US$18 million for ocean pollution charges. They admitted to having adopted the practice of dumping oily waste illegally for five years before they were hauled before the court. (Wilson, 2002)

Most recently, in 2013, Carnival Triumph by Carnival Corporation lost operating power due to an engine fire. The cruise liner was drifting in the ocean for nearly 5 days before it was towed back to shore. Given that there was no electricity on board and the lavatories were failing, it is safe to deduce that the MSDs on board were not working. One can only imagine the amount of environmental impact that the drifting cruise ship with more than 4,200 passengers on board had caused. Investigations are still ongoing. (Almasy, 2013)

7. Recommendations

One can only imagine how many cases went unnoticed. Remember, it took the law 5 years to catch up with Carnival Corporation's environmental crimes in 2003. Klein's extensive list of records have shown that despite the heavy fines passed down by the courts, cruise companies are not deterred and continue to flout the laws on environmental protection. Despite the current technologies available to us, it is still impossible to minimize the environmental impacts of cruise liners to zero. This section will contain a list of innovative approaches to better manage the problem.

Technology wise, Advanced Wastewater Treatment systems (AWTs) have proved themselves to be a worthy successor to the MSDs. EPA's all-encompassing research on AWTs has found that they are more complex and involves more processes which naturally translates into them being more expensive than their predecessors. (Agency, Cruise Ship Discharge Assessment Report, 2008) Given the profit driven nature of cruise companies, it is unlikely that they will invest a lot on green technologies.

In order to tackle this issue, firstly, there should be an independent regulatory board, set up at an international level to govern all cruise companies. Next, implement a profit-sharing scheme to take a cut of their profits and reinvest in green technology on their behalf. This way, cruise companies that are not profitable can gain and do their part for the environment too.

Leisure cruises are popular amongst retirees and this target market is slowly increasing with the entry of the baby boomers. In the U.S, census has shown that there were close to 80 million baby boomers. (Haaga, 2002) The point is, passengers can do a part for the environment too. Friends of the Earth, annually releases a report card on the environmental friendliness of cruise companies and the individual cruise liners. By opting for a greener cruise, this can pressure the cruise companies into adopting a greener operating strategy.

The cold hard truth remains, these pollutants treated or not, are still harmful to a certain level when released into the oceans. Theoretically speaking, the MSDs Type III models, if large enough, is possible to store more pollutants for treatment on shore. So if the recommended independent regulatory board could enforce a ruling to reduce the total capacity of cruise liners to accommodate these larger models instead, the amount of pollution would decrease.

It is by no means possible to physically supervise the activities of all cruise liners. However, we could ride on technology instead and implement sensors to detect illegal dumping activities so that authorities can mete out punishment swiftly.

8. Conclusion

It is apparent that the implemented regulations and technologies today are not sufficient enough to neither police nor improve the issue of cruise liners' pollution. What lies within the oceans is not just a source of food for us but also helps to sustain the life force of Earth as well. It is imperative that one do their part and modify their current approach to this issue to save the oceans and the marine life before it is too late for them and for us.

This paper was completed by conducting secondary research because of the technicalities involved with the matter in hand and the immense amount of readily available comprehensive data compiled by reputable organizations.



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