Alaska Cruise Ships Sewage

The Impact of Cruise Ship Wastewater Discharge on Alaska Waters.

Alaska cruise ships sewage. Challenging Alaskas Cruise Ship Pollution Cruise ship at Alaskas Tracy Arm Fjord. Wastewater treatment permits. On some cruise ships especially many of those that travel in Alaskan waters sewage is treated using Advanced Wastewater Treatment AWT systems that generally provide improved screening treatment disinfection and sludge processing as compared with traditional MSDs marine sanitation devices.

The Mountain Point wastewater treatment plant run by Ketchikans borough is allowed to put out more than 10 times as much as cruise ship systems. Forty large cruise ships operated in Alaska in 2019 of those twenty four ships were authorized to discharge treated wastewater in Alaska and eighteen ships discharged treated wastewater and conducted sampling. It must be done as per the international maritime laws.

The purpose of this sampling was to characterize graywater and sewage generated onboard and to evaluate the performance of various advanced. This poll indicates that cruise customers initially favorable impressions of cruises do not prevent them from being outraged by the industrys practices that pollute the ocean said Alan Quinlan. Its the latter scrubber washwater that may be the discharge of most concern.

Cruise ships discharge water that is treated to some of the worlds most stringent standards. The proposed changes are only to citations in the regulations to Alaska Statutes. The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation ADEC worked with a facilitator and a Negotiated Regulations Committee to draft regulations to accompany this law.

In fact Annex IV does not request operational sewage treatment plants on board to meet any concentration limits. Curiosity however reveals the. Alaska law requires that the owner or operator of a small commercial passenger vessel 50 to 249 overnight passengers determined by the number of lower berths registered under the commercial passenger vessel environmental compliance cpvec program may not discharge treated sewage graywater and other wastewater in alaska waters unless the.

When it comes to handling treatment and disposal of sewage on the ship. Mostcruise ships are permitted by Alaskas Department of Environmental Conservation DEC to dump treated wastewater while moving at 6 knots or faster anywhere anytime in Alaska. Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation.