Cruise Line Challenges Wastewater Fine

[Jason]

Cruise Line Challenges Wastewater Fine

By PEGGY ANDERSEN,

SEATTLE — Celebrity Cruises Inc. is challenging a $100,000 state fine for the release of more than half a million gallons of untreated wastewater into the Strait of Juan de Fuca, saying three of the 10 discharges actually occurred in Canadian waters.

State inspectors misread the ship's logs, said the Miami-based cruise line's filing, dated Dec. 14. The document was received Tuesday by the state Department of Ecology, spokesman Larry Altose said. The agency will respond early next year, he said.

Celebrity, a subsidiary of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., can appeal Ecology's response to the state Pollution Control Hearings Board, and, if still dissatisfied, to the courts.

At issue are 10 discharges made by the cruise ship Mercury over nine days in September and October 2005.

The more than 542,000 gallons consisted mostly of untreated sink, shower and laundry water, with a small percentage of sewage treated with a Coast Guard-certified marine sanitation device. Sewage treated in this way often contains high levels of fecal coliform bacteria, which can contaminate shellfish beds, but the department found no sign of such contamination in this case, Ecology said in its Nov. 14 announcement of the fine.

Celebrity Cruises says the logged locations of three discharges were misread by Ecology inspectors.

"They're telling us that three of these occurred on the opposite side of the international border ... in the Strait of Juan de Fuca" that separates the state from Canada, Altose said. "We'll make sure that squares with our calculations as well."

Celebrity also says it did not understand that the state's discharge rules apply more than three miles offshore in the strait and other inland waters. Along Washington's Pacific coast, the rule is effective to only three miles offshore, Altose said.

"We made an honest, innocent mistake," Bradley Stein, general counsel for Celebrity Cruises, told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer for a Wednesday report. "What we're trying to say is that we got mixed up."

The border runs roughly along the middle of the strait, which separates Washington's Olympic Peninsula from British Columbia's Vancouver Island. The strait varies from about 11 to 15 miles wide.

The company also wants penalties for the seven other discharges reduced, saying company officials did not know the discharges were occurring, there was no detectable environmental impact, the company took prompt corrective action by firing the ship's environmental officer and hiring a consultant to evaluate the incident, and is committed to a voluntary environmental standards program.

Celebrity plans to install an advanced wastewater purification system on the Mercury with an estimated cost of $4 million, it said.

State inspectors learned of the discharges this fall during an on-board inspection of the vessel allowed under a 2004 voluntary agreement involving the state, the Port of Seattle and the NorthWest CruiseShip Association.

Under the cruise-line pact, only vessels with advanced treatment systems certified by Ecology can discharge wastewater, and only when they are a mile from shore and under way at a speed of at least 6 knots. Celebrity's Mercury "did not have that," Altose said.

Some ships with enhanced treatment systems are allowed to discharge in port, he noted.

State law bars release of untreated wastewater into state waters by anyone. International standards apply more than 3 miles off the state's outer coast.

The three-way pact was worked out after the May 2003 release of 40 tons of human waste into the strait by the Norwegian Sun, an 835-foot vessel operated by the Miami-based Norwegian Cruise Line.

Activist Fred Felleman with the Bluewater Network said he was concerned that industry officials were still expressing confusion about the terms of the agreement.