in state waters (Juan de Fuca Straight) of Washington State.
http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=cruiseship17m&date=20061117The department Thursday announced that it is fining the Celebrity Cruises company $100,000 for the dumping from its ship, the Mercury, during fall 2005 off Port Townsend and Port Angeles.
The company blamed the spill on confusion about whether the ship was in state-governed waters. Nonetheless, it acknowledged the dumping and fired the employee who oversaw environmental operations on the Mercury. But it hasn't said whether it will pay the fine.
The state fine is the first against a cruise ship since 2004, when the state and several major cruise lines, including Celebrity, signed an agreement that barred cruise ships from dumping untreated wastewater into state waters.
State officials said the Mercury's dumping might never have been discovered without that agreement, which allowed inspectors to board the ship and read its operation records. Even so, the incident has led some to suggest the state should pass a law for aggressive monitoring and bigger fines instead of relying on the voluntary pact.
(End of quote)
And where on earth did you come up with "30 years in prison"? The Clean Water Act generally prohibits the dumping of sewage within three miles of shore, but beyond that, ships can and do dump their toilets into the sea. If you read this article, you will see that Washington state, as do all states, has control of its own waters to a certain distance out, as does any island or country bordering a lake or ocean or other body of water - I mean I can't give you courses in Admiralty law and property law on a blog! This particular cruise ship was fined because they were caught lying - their own contemporaneous records documented that 9 times in ten days, the ship dumped sewage and dirty water. That's ONE HALF MILLION gallons. If the ship had ventured farther out from the state's coast line, it could have dumped sewage with impunity. The ship was caught because some honest employee recorded in the ship's logs that they were dumping within state waters, and state inspectors read the logs. But elsewhere, the ship told the state it had not dumped any sewage in state waters.
Under international law these ships can and do dump everything but plastic and oil in the open sea - once they're beyond the state's or any other island or country's territorial waters. That means they're dumping sewage, garbage and toxic chemicals such as heavy metals, turpentine and perchloroethylene (dry cleaning sludge) into the sea. And the fact is that if a ship has no witnesses on the high seas, it may very well dump oil and plastic also.
Green, my ass. If a ship is designed to never dump sewage in the ocean, all the plumbing/piping would direct used water/sewage through filters, etc. to prevent this. The fact that the ship was able to dump directly into the ocean proves that the plumbing system was designed to do just that. I've known private yacht owners who on inland lakes and rivers who have illegally hooked up their toilets to dump directly under their boats, and just hope the Coast Guard never catches them. It's pretty simple to do. Google the topic and you'll come up with all kinds of critiques of the cruise industry dumping.
"Environmentally friendly cruise ships an oxymoron?"
www.oncampus.richmond.edu/academics/journalism/outlook/cruise.html
According to a study done by the Cape Decision International Services in Alaska, an average cruise ship produces between 158,000 and 272,000 gallons of graywater and treated blackwater a day. The largest cruise ships, of the 223 worldwide, are capable of carrying 5,000 people and can generate about 2 million gallons of waste water every week, Bluewater Network reported.
Bluewater Network is a national environmental organization which sent a report, Cruising for Trouble: Stemming the Tide of Cruise Ship Pollution, along with a petition on behalf of 58 other organizations to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. This petition asked the EPA to "identify and take regulatory action on measures to address pollution by cruise ships."
Cruise ships produce enormous volumes of completely unregulated or inadequately regulated waste, Bluewater charged. "It is time for the EPA to crack down on these floating cities that are having a severe impact of the environment," executive director Russell Long said.
http://www.metroactive.com/papers/cruz/01.15.03/cruise-ship-effects-0303.html(for some reason, this link takes you to a main metroactive page. It has a search window: type in cruise ship effects to get to the article.
Built to Spill
Even when the cruise industry plays by the rules, critics say its effects on our waters can be nasty business
By Rebecca Patt
Most of us would think that common sense is enough to prevent the dumping of oil, sewage, garbage and toxic chemicals such as heavy metals, turpentine and perchloroethylene (dry cleaning sludge) into the sea. Yet because of negligence and lax regulations, cruise ships have done it again and again. An international law makes it illegal to dispose of plastic and oil anywhere at sea, but otherwise, cruise ships can legally dump almost anything, writes Ross Klein in his book Cruise Ship Blues. This waste--even the legal stuff--can be devastating to marine life.
Sewage is also a huge hazard. It introduces disease-causing microorganisms and excessive nutrients. The pathogens can become concentrated in the tissues of shellfish and other filter feeders, making them unsafe for human consumption, writes Klein. Pathogens also harm coral and the nutrients in sewage promotes excessive growth of algae, which suffocates fish. If the sewage is released close to shore, it can result in sick surfers and beach closures. The Clean Water Act generally prohibits the dumping of sewage within three miles of shore, but beyond that, cruise ships can dump their toilets into the sea.
Hazardous waste from dry cleaning, photo processing, X-ray fluids, paint solvents, fluorescent light bulbs and batteries can harm or kill marine life and in turn threaten the humans who consume it. And garbage and plastic is not only ugly on the beaches, it can also be swallowed by animals that, for instance, confuse plastic bags with jellyfish. Turtles and birds are especially susceptible.
The EPA has found that even gray water--the water from the sinks, the showers and the galley--is potentially hazardous. Yet the Clean Water Act permits it to be legally dumped anywhere except the Great Lakes and certain parts of Alaska's Inside Passage, writes Klein.
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