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Cruise-business critic Ross Klein and Cha Smith, executive director of native Hawaiian environmentalist group Kahea, explained their positions Wednesday at a Star-Bulletin editorial board meeting.
Cruise ship
pollution targetedThe debate rages on whether
the environment is at risk from
voluntary disposal standards
Hawaii's voluntary rules governing cruise ships and pollution are too loose and place the delicate coastal environment at risk, according to cruise industry critic Ross Klein.
At least one well-placed state legislator, Sen. Cal Kawamoto (D-Waipahu), disagrees and takes an attitude that adds up to, if it isn't broken we don't need to fix it.
The cruise line industry also believes voluntary standards work best and that the memorandum of understanding signed a year ago between the state and the Northwest Cruiseship Association, representing 10 cruise lines, is doing its job.
Meanwhile, the state and the cruise lines are rewriting the agreement, but it will still be voluntary and there is no sign it will gain enforcement teeth in the rewrite.
What's needed is strong law, not voluntary compliance, said Klein, a self-described "cruise junkie" who made several dozen cruise trips before writing a book on the subject, "Cruise Ship Blues: The Underside of the Cruise Industry."
Klein is not an environmentalist by training or profession. He is an associate professor of social work at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada. But he was brought to Hawaii by Kahea, a native Hawaiian environmental protection group because local environmentalists believe he has an important message, that cruise ships can and do pollute in ways that threaten long-term damage to the ocean and reef environment.
Hawaii is one of two jurisdictions that use the memorandum of understanding procedure, rather than crafting laws. The other is Florida.
In Hawaii's case, the cruise lines say they are bound by the agreement and that it goes beyond applicable state and federal laws. Signed in late October last year, it basically says that no potentially damaging waste products will be dumped from ships unless they are at least four miles off shore and that crews and officers must be educated in environmental procedures.
Klein said that is just all too voluntary and cruise lines have shown they can't be trusted. "It's an industry that has not necessarily proven that they're trustworthy." That is demonstrated by some $60 million in fines for environmental damage levied against the worldwide cruise industry in the past five years, Klein said.
Cha Smith, executive director of Kahea, a native Hawaiian environmentalist coalition that brought Klein to Hawaii for a speaking tour, agreed.
She said people she and Klein met on other islands, particularly Maui, were very concerned about the added stress cruise lines place on the local ecosystem.
Her organization is pressing for stronger legislation governing cruise ships and is spending time educating legislators "because it is increasingly clear that they were getting only one side of the story," she said.
A lot of the data that Klein uses in his books to condemn the industry are simply out of date and out of context, said John Hansen, president of the Vancouver, B.C.-based Northwest Cruiseship Association.
For example, Klein does not acknowledge a mountain of research done several years ago concerning Alaska cruises, in which independent experts examined the records of test results from wastewater from a number of ships. Their conclusion was that there was no evidence of environmental harm, Hansen said, and that was before many of the ships retooled with more modern and effect waste-processing equipment.
"I think Mr. Klein tends to use the data that backs his argument," Hansen said. And he said the industry is happy to be working with state health officials in Hawaii to make the memorandum of understanding more effective.
Tom Arizumi, chief of the environmental management division in the state Department of Health, said his office has been working with the cruise lines for about a month to develop changes to the year-old agreement. It is too soon to say what those changes might be, but the process should end up with a new agreement in about a month, Arizumi said.
RUSS LYNCH / RLYNCH@STARBULLETIN.COM
Norwegian Cruise Line, whose Norwegian Wind sails out of Honolulu, is one of the companies to have signed a voluntary pact.
State Sen. J. Kalani English (D-East Maui-Molokai) said he had a long session with Klein and agrees with him. English introduced some 20 bills last session seeking to regulate the cruise industry. Some of those bills will be back this coming year, he said.
"The cruise industry says the (memorandum of understanding) is fine and I'm saying, OK, if it is fine with you then you don't mind us codifying and we'll put it into law. That's when they say no," English said.
The deal was made between the executive branch and the cruise lines and legislators were not consulted, he said.
Rep. Brian Schatz, (D-Makiki) agrees with English. "We don't believe in the (memorandum of understanding). What it essentially does is put forward a a voluntary environmental scheme and history has shown us that doesn't necessarily work," Schatz said.
"Once legislators find out how toothless the (memorandum of understanding) is and what level of catastrophe could occur in our near-shore waters, I think they will be much more open to stronger legislation," Schatz said.
Sen. Kawamoto said the only education he needs that would convince him to move against the cruise industry would be proof that the agreement is not working and no one has shown him that.
"My point is, show me where the (memorandum of understanding) is not working. The Department of Health and the cruise line guys came to an agreement to tweak the (memorandum) and that's fine," said Kawamoto, chairman of the Senate Transportation, Military Affairs and Government Operations Committee. Meanwhile the cruise business is good for Hawaii and he said he sees no reason to damage it by unneeded regulation.
Klein believes voluntary programs such as the memorandum of understanding are too risky and some more solid form of enforcement is needed. "They can say they're sorry" after an event but that won't cure environmental destruction caused by sewage and wastewater, he said.
"There are 20-30 tons of sewage produced per ship per day, Klein said.
The two big ships that Norwegian Cruise Line is bringing to Hawaiian waters between them will produce as much effluent as is produced on the entire island of Molokai, he said.
"Alaska has clear regulations with monitoring and enforcement and it works," he said. The memorandum of understanding's rules and requirements "still do not protect the ecology of Hawaii adequately," he said.
Klein said environmentalists are concerned about "nutrient loading," the nutrients contained in wastewater from ships. It shifts the energy balance among the different forms of sea life and can permanently change the ecology.
"I think four miles is too close. Twelve miles is ideal," Klein said.
Nitrogen in human waste, which cannot be filtered out in any cost-effective way, causes algae growth which damages coral reefs, he said.
Ships are getting bigger. New liners are being introduced that carry 3,000 or more passengers and a crew of 2,000. The popularity of cruising is growing and that increases the risks, he said.
Klein said he feels a lot more research is needed into the effects of the cruise industry on the Hawaii environment so state officials can work from a deeper knowledge. "Right now I feel that they have been making uninformed decisions," he said.
The members of the Northwest Cruiseship Association who are part of the agreement included Norwegian Cruise Line, now Hawaii's dominant cruise operator, and Carnival Cruise Lines, Celebrity Cruises, Crystal Cruises, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises, Radisson Seven Seas Cruises, Royal Caribbean International, Seabourn Cruises and World Explorer Cruises.
