UW Environmental Law Clinic Files Petition Calling on EPA to Update 30 Year-old Sewage Standards for Cruise Ships
The UW Environmental Law Clinic has drafted and filed a petition with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today requesting that the EPA update standards governing sewage dumping from large ships. The Clinic drafted the petition on behalf of its client Friends of the Earth. The environmental group said current vessel sewage discharge standards that allow the use of 30-year-old technology are outdated and fail to protect water quality, and that far better treatment technology exists and has been in use in some cruise ships for years.
“The EPA itself acknowledged, almost nine years ago, that current ‘standards … may no longer be sufficiently stringent in light of available new technologies,’” said Marcie Keever, Clean Vessels Campaign Director at Friends of the Earth. “Not only are these standards outdated, but the treatment systems tested by the EPA did not meet even the EPA’s extremely outmoded criteria. We are hopeful that, under a new administration, the EPA will finally compel all large ships, especially cruise ships, dumping waste in U.S. waters to use better technology. We would like vessel sewage standards brought into the 21st century.”