FORT LAUDERDALE, March 26, 2010 – The Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), in attendance at this week’s meetings of the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) Maritime Environmental Protection Committee in London, released the following statement in response to the designation of the Baltic for a special area under MARPOL Annex IV (sewage), pursuant to a petition filed by HELCOM:
“Our opportunities to do business in the Baltic come with responsibilities to behave in an environmentally sustainable manner.Every player in the Baltic region – land or sea – has a responsibility.This is precisely why we have voluntarily agreed to discharge all sewage ashore, where adequate reception facilities are available, despite the fact our ships account for less than 0.04% of the nutrient-loading problem in the Baltic Sea.
We are gratified the committee recognizes the need to clearly define ‘adequate facilities’ and we are committed to working with the various stakeholders to achieve this goal. In this context, we believe that ‘adequate facilities’ should mean that the port can receive all waste water effluent via direct line/shore connection which can then be effectively treated at the municipal waste water treatment plant.
Up to 90 percent of the Baltic ports may fail to reach the IMO adequacy definition for port reception facilities for passenger ships required by MARPOL Annex IV.Instead, reception relies primarily on tank trucks which are insufficient to receive the large volumes of wastewater. Ports with pipelines, a more effective method, have limited discharge capacity due to lower than advertised flow rates.
Without these shore-side facilities, unreasonably high expectations would be placed on advanced wastewater treatment systems aboard cruise ships.While manufacturers are making progress and the effluent from these systems surpass many municipal treatment facilities, they simply have not yet identified ways to meet the Special Area criteria.
A disproportionate impact will be felt by smaller Baltic ports that may not be able to install adequate shore-side reception facilities.If left with the decision between visiting a port that can accommodate the regulatory requirements of a ship or one that cannot, operators would be force to chart their course toward compliance.Larger ports would see increased tourism, while the smaller Baltic ports would see less altogether.
The designation of the Baltic as a special area requires additional consideration, as decided by the committee today, which will take place at MEPC 61 next year. CLIA is committed to working with the international environmental regulators in order to advance our mutual goal of protecting the health of the environment in the Baltic and worldwide.”
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