The Commercial Passenger Vessel Environmental Compliance (Cruise Ship) Program was established in July 2001 by AS 46.03.460 - AS 46.03.490. Cruise ships are regulated in a variety of ways by State and/or Federal agencies (such as the Coast Guard and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)). The Division of Water regulates the activities of cruise ships while in State waters through permitting the discharges of wastewater through wastewater treatment systems inspection programs which examine the vessels periodically to determine compliance with their permits.

Highlights

DEC makes it a goal to operate with full transparency and is excited to provide an insight into the inner workings of the Department as it relates to our commercial passenger vessel regulatory oversight.

Who is regulating commercial passenger vessels at DEC?

The Department of Environmental Conservation Division of Water and the Division of Air both regulate commercial passenger vessels in their own way.

The Division of Water Water regulates water discharges of treated sewage, treated graywater, and other treated wastewaters from large commercial passenger vessels.

The Division of Air Quality regulates visible emissions, excluding water vapor, through the exhaust from marine vessels (this includes cruise ships and state ferries). There are exemptions for when the vessel is completing all maneuvers to anchor or make fast to shore, during the initial startup of the vessel, and after weighing anchor or casting off. Compliance with opacity requirements is determined through the use of EPA Reference Method 9 observations. Observations are made by trained DEC staff and contracted opacity readers.

How are commercial passenger vessels discharges regulated?

The Division of Water regulates cruise ships in four general categories: large non-discharging vessels, large discharging vessels, small discharging vessels, and small non-discharging vessels. Large non-discharging vessels are vessels which enter Alaskan waters, but do not discharge their treated wastewater within three miles of the shoreline (the extent of state regulatory water). Wastewater can be discharged beyond three miles without a permit from the State but require a permit from the EPA for discharges that occur between three miles and twelve miles from the shore. Beyond twelve miles, discharges may occur without permits from either the State or EPA. Nearly half of the large cruise ships which come to Alaska do not actually discharge (or are not permitted to discharge) into waters of the state and instead retain their wastewater and discharge it beyond three or twelve miles from shore.

The second category of cruise ships are large water discharging vessels. These are what people typically associate with cruise ships which come to Alaska, but again, represent only about half the large cruise ships. Passengers onboard the vessel use showers and toilets, and this water is treated through an advanced wastewater treatment facility and is discharged overboard. The discharge of this treated wastewater is closely regulated and must be at, or below, permit limits before it can be discharged. Discharging ships can have a combination of end-of-pipe limits (meaning that the permit limits must be achieved as the wastewater exits the pipe into the environment) or can have DEC authorized mixing zones which allow for a small area of dilution beside the vessel. Cruise ships are required to sample, report, and address monitoring issues as they occur.

The third category of cruise ships regulated by the Division of Water are small discharging vessels. The distinction between ‘small’ and ‘large’ vessels are the number of passengers that the vessel can accommodate (as reported by lower berths). Vessels which have overnight accommodations for 50 to 249 passengers are classified as ‘small’, while vessels that have 250 or greater overnight accommodations for passengers are classified as ‘large’. The two classes of cruise ships operate differently, and hence, are regulated differently. Small cruise ships often operate marine sanitation devices in lieu of the advanced wastewater treatment system found onboard large vessels. Marine sanitation devices often cannot meet the same level of treatment that advanced wastewater treatment systems can. Accordingly, the discharge limitations imposed on small vessels is less stringent than their larger counterparts; but still closely mirror the discharge limitations placed on many shore-based dischargers like municipal wastewater treatment facilities.

The final category of cruise ships are small non-discharging vessels. These vessels do not discharge in State waters, but instead are required to hold graywater and blackwater onboard until they can discharge outside of State waters. This type of cruise ship does not require Division of Water approval, effluent sampling, or submittal of wastewater sampling plans.

How are cruise ships regulated by the Division of Water?

Division of Waters has set a goal of inspecting all cruise ships which enter Alaskan waters at least once during the season, including inspecting the Alaska Marine Highway ferries, while either in-port and underway (between ports). When vessels are inspected, and deficiencies are found, the Department can utilize a series of escalating responses to address these issues and require the vessels return to operating in a compliant manner. The range of responses can vary from informal actions such as a Compliance Letters for minor or easily corrected issues, up to requesting the assistance of the Department of Law or Environmental Crimes Unit in the development of legally binding formal enforcement actions which regularly include fines.

Often, violations are identified through a combination of onboard inspection observations or required vessel reporting.

How are cruise ship inspections going and are the cruise ships doing well?

During the 2024 cruise season (calendar year 2024) there were 46 large vessels and 14 small vessels including two Department of Transportation Alaska Marine Highway ferries, which operated in Alaska. The Division of Water conducted 71 inspections onboard large vessels (both permitted discharging and non-discharging) and 13 inspections onboard small vessels. Vessels that were permitted to discharge were inspected both in-port and underway. Follow-up inspections were conducted on vessels as needed to address concerns (three re-inspections were performed in 2024). Inspections were conducted onboard every vessel that entered Alaskan waters during the 2024 cruise ship season except one, Le Boreal, which was only in Nome for one day.

In 2024, 321 samples of wastewater were collected from the 27 large, permitted discharging vessels. Of the 321 sampling events, ten reported at least one discharge exceedance. Of the ten exceedances eight were relatively modest and all vessels with exceedances performed corrective actions and came back into compliance quickly. In general, large cruise ship exceedances occur sporadically, are still well below the limits that shore-based wastewater treatment facilities are held to and are not the result of systemic operational or maintenance issues with the treatment systems.

There were 43 samples of wastewater collected from the 14 small vessels. Of them, six vessels reported some form of parameter exceedance. Of the 43 samples collected; 39.5% of those samples exceeded the fecal coliform limit, 23.3% exceeded the total suspended solids limit, and 18.6% exceeded the total residual chlorine limit. In contrast to the large cruise ships’ advanced wastewater treatment systems, the small cruise ships’ marine sanitation devices did not consistently produce treated wastewater in compliance with small vessel treatment standards. In response to the sampling results, the Division of Water issued Notice of Violations to all six vessels which reported sampling exceedances. Two small vessel operators currently ongoing enforcement cases regarding frequent exceedances.

For more information on the cruise ship compliance program see the 2024 Annual Commercial Passenger Vessel Reports.

Are cruise ship discharges having a negative impact on Alaskan water quality?

Wastewater discharges generally require a permit from the Division of Water; this is true for many offshore and shore-based facilities. Facility discharges have limits placed on them for a variety of parameters, including fecal coliform (FC). Some shore-based facilities have fecal limitations that can be as high as 1.5 million (1,500,000) FC/100mL, while cruise ships have much stricter FC limits:

• 40 FC/100mL for large cruise ships (2013DB0004 General Vessel Wastewater Discharge Permit), and
• 200 FC/100mL for small cruise ships (EPA regulations setting performance standards at 40 CFR 140)

Also, unlike many municipal wastewater treatment facilities which typically discharge continuously at a fixed location, cruise ship discharges occur over multiple locations during their voyages through Alaska waters. Some cruise ships don't discharge at all while in Alaskan waters while others may elect to discharge only while underway (i.e., at speeds greater than 6 knots).

Besides inspections, how is DEC assessing possible impacts from passenger vessels?

In addition to vessel inspections, the Division of Water also actively monitors water quality in Alaska’s high traffic harbors and shipping lanes in order to inform permitting of discharges (eg. Cruise ship), and to identify locations of concern where additional sampling is needed to determine if Alaska Water Quality Standards are being meet.

Since 2015, the Division of Water has collected water quality data in response to cruise ship discharges. The locations and the timing of water sampling varies from year to year, based on concerns. From 2020 to 2022, 150 sites were sampled annually in 19 of Alaska’s busiest ports, and selected shipping lanes. Samples are analyzed for common heavy metals found in discharges (Ni, Cu, and Zn), ammonia nitrogen, physical parameters (temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, and salinity) and pathogens (fecal coliform and enterococci). The resulting dataset has an impressive amount of information, with many thousands of rows of data. Overall, these data paint a picture of relatively pristine marine waters. Preliminary results reveal little differences between ‘non cruise ship years’ during the COVID pandemic, and the past year when the industry was operating at near normal levels, although a few areas of concern have been identified. Ketchikan, Seward and Valdez harbors demonstrate high levels of pathogens. In response, DEC is planning more intensive sampling in these ports. Because this monitoring is focused on ambient, or background conditions (different from samples taken at the zone of discharge for industry permits), it is difficult to pinpoint the source of pollution found in these samples. During 2023 several sampling locations will be moved to provide clues about sources, and Microbial Source Tracking will be used to determine if pathogens are from animals, birds or human. DEC is also responding to concerns about the growing cruise ship industry by collecting additional baseline data where cruise ship traffic is projected to increase, such as in Whittier and Juneau. These efforts will continue to provide information that will support DEC in protecting human health and the environment.

DEC also investigates each complaint and will notify the vessel operators or owners as soon as possible so that mitigating steps can be taken. Depending on availability, DEC will often follow up complaints with observations by DEC staff or contractors.

The Department is also excited to be working diligently on a legislative proposal which, among other things, would make existing environmental commercial passenger fee dollars available for wastewater systems or cruise ship electrification projects at port communities. The potential benefit possible through these funds could be a game changer for communities which struggle with infrastructure improvements as a result of increased visitation from commercial passenger vessels and to further offset the environmental impacts from cruise ship visitation to Alaska.

The Department is proud of the work that we do to protect human health and the environment and appreciate the continued support from Alaskans as we continue to implement a robust and transparent regulatory program for Alaskans, by Alaskans.