Cruise ships are getting caught more often dumping wastewater into Alaska’s waters, a state environmental protection committee hearing heard.
Officers from the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation say cruise ships are committing three time as many wastewater violations since 2018.
This is when Alaska’s ‘ocean ranger’ program ended.
Ocean rangers were state employees tasked with monitoring cruise ship wastewater discharges into the ocean.
Since the program was abolished in 2019, violations have spiked from 20 to 25 a year in 2018 to up to 75 annually.
“We are seeing an increase in exceedances, but we’re also seeing an increase in compliance response, post-ocean ranger,” said Gene McCabe, director of the Division of Water, told the subcommittee.
Also, officials have been tracking discharges more closely in recent years with water test sampling efforts.
Additionally, the big growth in cruise ship traffic is also likely a factor in the increase of wastewater violations.
