Cruise Ships Dump Raw Sewage in Unladylike Amounts, Despite Princess Names

The cruise ship industry is a bastion of excess: enormous ships holding thousands of passengers, and of course food, all of that limitless food. My stomach hurts just thinking about it. But if you happen to be in a port city, and you are unfortunate enough to lack a ticket to ride, don't feel jealous. You still get to enjoy at least one of the cruise industry's excesses. But brace yourself, this too may make your stomach hurt.

According to the group Save Our Shores! Florida, ever year, cruise ships release hundreds of thousands of gallons of raw sewage, garbage and waste into our coastal waters (as little as three nautical from the shore) and into our oceans.  Think about it: The average cruise ship carries 3,000 people...plus food, all of that limitless food. I'd ask you to do the math, but EPA has done it for you. Their Cruise Ship Discharge Assessment report states that the largest ships can pump out 74,000 gallons of sewage a day, enough to completely fill about 150 bathtubs.  For all of the time the ships spend near ports, this fountain of grossness spews near shellfish beds, public beaches, wetlands and marine ecosystems.

Cruise ships are literally floating cities, as Save Our Shores! notes, so you'd think they would be regulated like cities, too. And we don't let city residents discharge their toilets straight out into their waterways, do we?

This is apparently not the case for cruise liners. Cruise ships do not have to comply with environmental and water quality protection laws that are required for municipalities, and according to The Oregonian, the lack of consistent federal and international regulations means they can cherry pick which rules to follow, push their pollution further out to sea (usually under the cover of night)—or not follow any rules at all.  Ships aren't supposed to release sewage in state waters, within 3 miles of shore, but I guess no one has heard of a little thing called ocean currents, which frequently return pollution right back to the beach.

According to the Hawaiian Environmental Alliance, the industry also has a history of breaking what little rules they are required to follow, and are regularly fined millions of dollars for illegal dumping, falsified reports, and outright lies to inspectors.

"The maritime business is sort of like the last underregulated bastion of the corporate world," Fred Felleman, the Northwest consultant for Friends of the Earth, told The Oregonian. "Because it falls between the borders of the world, it's been hard to figure out how to get our arms around it.'

It's time for this to change. There's an act in Congress called the Clean Cruise Ship Act (S.1820/H.R.3888), that would prohibit the discharge of hazardous waste, sewage sludge, and incinerator ash within all U.S. waters and prohibits the discharge of sewage, graywater, and oily bilge water within 12 nautical miles of shore. In addition, the bill would establish cruise ship water quality standards and monitoring and reporting requirements. You can sign Save Our Shores! Florida's petition to tell your representatives to support this important legislation.

After all, with ships with names like the Coral Princess, the Golden Princess, and the Norwegian Pearl, don't you think these boats' behavior should be be a little more ladylike?

Photo credit: jimp944 via Flickr

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