Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions

SATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS

By Mr. DURBIN (for himself, Mr. LAUTENBERG, Mr. CORZINE, Mrs. FEINSTEIN, Mr. KENNEDY, and Mrs. BOXER):

S. 2271. A bill to establish national standards for discharges from cruise vessels into the waters of the United States, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, today I am introducing the Clean Cruise Ship Act of 2004. I am proud to be joined by Senators LAUTENBERG, CORZINE, FEINSTEIN, KENNEDY and BOXER in offering this legislation. I also am honored to be working with Congressman FARR, who is leading companion legislation in the House and is a co-chair of the House Oceans Caucus.

America's oceans span nearly 4.5 million square miles, an area 23 percent larger than the nation's land area. They are a resource for travel, commerce, recreation and the global ecosystem. They comprise 70 percent of our planet.

We cannot continue to take this vast resource for granted. The Pew Commission found in June 2003 that our oceans are in crisis. The report cites five priorities: implementing a sustainable national ocean policy; coordinating the governance of ocean resources; reorienting our fisheries policy to emphasize sustainability; protecting ocean habitat and managing coastal development; and controlling the sources of pollution threatening our marine ecosystems. Today I want to concentrate on the fifth priority: controlling pollution.

With growing amounts of pollution caused by human activity, we are significantly degrading the marine environment. According to the EPA, pollution has rendered 44 percent of tested estuaries and 12 percent of ocean shoreline miles unfit for swimming, fishing or supporting aquatic life. The Coast Guard estimates that marine debris is responsible for the deaths of more than 1 million birds and 100,000 marine mammals each year. About 90 percent of Florida's coral reefs are believed to be dead or dying.

We have taken some actions to protect our oceans, but we still have a long way to go. We need to improve enforcement of our existing environmental protection laws, but we also need to update them to accommodate for the changing times.

Specifically, we need to address pollution from passenger cruise ships. The cruise line industry has grown significantly over the past 34 years. In 1970, cruise ships carried 500,000 passengers in the United States. In 2002, the cruise line industry carried 6.5 million passengers in about 150 ships in the United States, and that number has continued to grow.

In addition to a tremendous increase in the number of passengers, cruise ships themselves have grown. Today the average cruise vessel accommodates 3,100 passengers and crew. Carnival recently built the largest passenger ship in the world, the Queen Mary 2: it's 1,132 feet long, which is more than twice as long as the Washington Monument is tall; it is 236 feet high, about the height of a 23-story building; and it weights about 151,400 long tons, the rough equivalent of 390 fully loaded 747 jets.

According to the EPA, a typical 3,000 passenger cruise ship each week generates 210,000 gallons of sewage; 1 million gallons of gray water, including runoff from baths, laundry machines and dishwashers; and 37,000 gallons of oily bilge water. Ships of the size of cruise vessels today, which generate the amount of waste of today, did not exist when the Clean Water Act and other environmental laws were written in the 1970s. Therefore, our laws regarding cruise ships are grossly inadequate.

My colleagues may be shocked to learn that it is legal to dump raw sewage 3 miles from shore; and it is legal to dump sewage within 3 miles so long as it is run through a machine, which complies with a standard that is over 20 years old and which is never rigorously tested once installed. Also it is legal to dump gray water-which can contain harmful toxins and nutrients-anywhere in the ocean. Only Alaskan waters are protected by strong federal legislation enacted in 2000 that regulates sewage and graywater.

The legislation I am introducing today,the Clean Cruise Ship Act of 2004, would draw from key provisions of the federal law in place in Alaska and the Clean Water Act. This bill would: first, create a no discharge zone that would prevent dumping of sewage, graywater and oily bilge water within 12 miles of shore-to protect our coasts and estuaries; second, apply the current Alaskan standards to sewage and graywater discharges outside of 12 miles from shore; third, allow the Coast Guard and EPA to jointly issue discharge requirements based on the best available technology, with the goal of zero pollutants by 2015; and finally, strengthen enforcement.

Studies show that the Alaskan standards, which our bills applies to the rest of the country, can be achieved. Indeed, ships that have been upgraded to treat sewage and graywater with modern technology are easily meeting or exceeding standards for such constituents as fecal coliform and chlorine.

Not only is this bill technologically feasible: it is affordable. The cost to upgrade each ship will be more than $3 million. To put this into context, Carnival Cruise Lines just spent $800 million to build the new Queen Mary 2, and earned $6.7 billion in revenues last year.,

The Clean Cruise Ship Act of 2004 is a reasonable approach to an urgent problem. I urge my colleagues to support this important legislation.