I’ve never been one who really enjoys an extended period of time in a confined space therefore going on a cruise has never held particular appeal to me. I’ve been on ferries crossing the Irish Sea and the North Sea to visit Ireland and Europe but always using the ship as a method of transport not as a  holiday. Naturally without my participation the cruise industry is still huge and growing on an annual basis. While I lived in Los Angeles I marveled at the size of the magnificent ships harboured in San Pedro waiting like sentinels to take their cargo of two or three thousand holidaymakers down the Pacific Coast to various Mexican and Central American ports of call. I never realized until reading a recent article that sewage from these huge vessels was not previously restricted for dumping in coastal waters.

Happily new federal regulations will now ban all cruise ships and larger commercial ships from discharging their sewage within 3 miles of the California coastline according to the US Environmental Protection Agency. The laws come into play in 2011 and it is estimated that the results will keep approximately 20,000,000 gallons of sewage away from coastal waters annually. In addition to cruise ships commercial boats in excess of 300 tons will also be subject to the same rulings. The US Coast Guard will also have the authority to charge vessels with sewage violations. Naturally enough when a cruise ship with sometimes as many as 4000 passengers takes to the seas it becomes the equivalent of a small city offshore and all the resultant pollution that goes with that many residents.

Many cruise lines are stating that the ban will have little impact as they already have internal policies which reflect an earlier law that was passed in 2005 with many operators now keeping sewage in large tanks to either dump further out at sea or transferred to wastewater treatment facilities. Nevertheless the impact on commercial vessels should also help the water quality on the Pacific coast that has continued to deteriorate in recent decades. The law makes perfect sense especially when stringent laws have already been passed to reduce runoff from rivers and sewage centers and pipes that are onshore.

I still don’t think it’s enough to make me want to jump on a 10 day cruise and have dinner with strangers every evening but it’s good to see the EPA holding the cruise industry to task when it comes to environmental matters. Surely the best procedure of all would result in banning the discharge of sewage anywhere on the seas rather than just the coastal barrier that has now been more properly enforced. One step at a time but it’s most certainly a step in a positive direction.