Bluewater Network helped draft a bill recently introduced by Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson in Washington state that addresses cruise ship pollution. The bill (HR2549) received national press coverage from USA Today and the Associated Press. “The bill would protect Puget Sound and coastal waters from the routine dumping of sewage and wastewater produced by the expanding cruise ship fleet that calls on the Port of Seattle,” said Bluewater’s Teri Shore in the USA Today article. “I don’t think anyone realizes that most of the waste from these floating cities goes directly into the ocean.”

Bluewater has been working with Ocean Advocates of Seattle in calling for new state cruise pollution laws and opposing a voluntary pollution agreement in Washington since a Norweigan Cruise Lines ship dumped 16,000 gallons of concentrated raw sewage in Juan De Fuca Strait in May of 2003. Cruise traffic into the Port of Seattle has increased from six port calls in 1999 to more than 140 scheduled calls in 2004. No new environmental laws have been put into place to prevent cruise ships from dumping or to monitor discharges, even though the industry has paid $50 million in five years for violating environmental laws around the US.

For more information go to: http://www.bluewaternetwork.org

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