Green group sues EPA over cruise pollution

[OceanAngel]

POLLUTION

Green group sues EPA over cruise pollution

The environmental group Friends of the Earth has sued the U.S. government over pollution released by cruise ships.

BY ANGELA TABLAC

atablac@MiamiHerald.com

Seven years after asking the U.S. government to regulate cruise ship pollution, an environmental group is now heading to court.

In a lawsuit filed Wednesday, national advocacy group Friends of the Earth alleges the Environmental Protection Agency didn't act on a March 2000 petition to research and regulate cruise ship waste.

Miami and Fort Lauderdale are the two busiest U.S. departure spots for ships, and cruise lines are building more -- and bigger -- vessels. These ships mean more pollution, the Washington, D.C., non-profit says.

After Friends of the Earth petitioned on behalf of 53 environmental organizations, the EPA held public meetings about cruise pollution and promised to publish recommendations. But action stopped when the Bush administration took office in 2001, said Teri Shore, the campaign director. The group hopes the lawsuit will motivate the EPA to respond to the petition and investigate ways of curbing cruise pollution.

''We've reached the point of unreasonable delay,'' said Shore, who added that the group planned to file the lawsuit in March -- near the seventh anniversary of the petition -- but took until May to organize legal documents.

The U.S. government has 60 days to respond to the lawsuit, which was first reported Thursday by The Sun-Sentinel. But EPA spokesman Dale Kemery said the agency wrote a paper about cruise pollution in August 2000 and plans to release a report this fall analyzing cruise ship waste and its effect on water quality and marine life.

''There was a response, and there was advanced notice that this report was going to be released this fall,'' said Kemery, who declined to further comment.

Although ships do produce sewage, cruise lines use water purification systems and recycling programs, said Christine Fischer, spokeswoman for Cruise Lines International Association, the main cruise industry group. Plus, some ships are able to reduce air emissions.

''The most important thing to us is what happens to the waste, how it's treated,'' she said.

According to Friends of the Earth, a typical one-week cruise with 3,000 passengers creates 210,000 gallons of sewage, 1 million gallons of dirty water from laundry and other activities and 37,000 gallons of oily water gathered at the ship's bottom. Newer cruise ships can carry around 5,000 people -- and generate even more waste, Shore said.

Current law prevents raw sewage from being dumped within three miles of land, and some states have enacted regulations, but not Florida. There need to be more consistent standards, Shore added.

http://www.miamiherald.com/103/story/103126.html