[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 44 (Thursday, April 1, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3570-S3571]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      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

[[Page S3571]]

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.
                                 ______