_____________________________________________________________________ 

1100 15th Street, NW · 11th Floor · Washington, DC 20005 · (202) 783-7400 · www.foe.org 

311 California Street · Suite 510 · San Francisco, CA 94104-2607 · (415) 544-0790 

November 9, 2010 

Kathryn Benz, Office of Wetlands, Oceans, and Watersheds 

Office of Water 

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 

Mailcode: 4504T 

1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW. 

Washington, DC 20460 

ow-docket@epa.gov 

By Electronic Mail & Submission to www.regulations.gov 

Re: Clean Water Act Section 312(b): Notice Seeking Stakeholder Input on Petition and 

Other Request to Revise the Performance Standards for Marine Sanitation Devices; 

Docket # EPA–HQ–OW–2010–0126 

Dear Ms. Benz: 

Friends of the Earth (FoE) would like to thank the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for 

issuing a request for stakeholder input in the Federal Register regarding FoE’s petition to the 

EPA requesting a revision of the performance standards for Marine Sanitation Devices. 

In passing the Clean Water Act (“CWA”) Congress made its overriding goal clear: to “restore 

and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the Nation’s waters.”1 There can 

be little doubt that the CWA has been the primary factor in achieving dramatic improvements in 

the water quality of our Nation’s waterways, even as our economy and population have 

increased. However, we are still far from having achieved Congress’ stated goal, and there 

remain areas in which the EPA must do more to protect the Nation’s waters. Our petition to the 

EPA in April 2009 addressed one such area. 

Large vessels continue to discharge significant volumes of pollution and sewage into our coastal 

waters. Cruise ships, for example, have the potential to generate and discharge as much waste as 

a small town while operating in sensitive ecosystems.2 In section 312 of the CWA, Congress 

specifically recognized the importance of controlling the discharge of sewage from vessels. In 

promulgating vessel discharge regulations, EPA is required to design standards within the limits 

of available technology that prevent the discharge of untreated or inadequately treated sewage in 

to navigable waters.3 More than thirty years have passed since EPA first promulgated vessel 

sewage discharge regulations and EPA has not updated the standards to reflect the dramatic 

 

1

 33 U.S.C. § 1251(a). 

2

 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Cruise Ship Discharge Assessment Report 1-1 (2008) 

[hereinafter 2008 Cruise Ship Assessment]. 

3

 33 U.S.C. § 1322(b)(1). 
Friends of the Earth 

November 9, 2010 

Page 2 

2

technological advances that have been made in treatment technology in the past thirty years.4 

EPA acknowledged, almost nine years ago, that the applicable standards for vessel sewage 

discharges were “developed in 1976 and may no longer be sufficiently stringent in light of 

available new technologies.”5 EPA has an obligation, in order to meet the Congressionally stated 

goals of the CWA, to amend these standards to reflect the significant technological advances that 

have been achieved. 

Friends of the Earth6 petitioned the EPA to update the vessel sewage discharge standards 

promulgated under section 312 of the Clean Water Act and contained in 40 C.F.R. § 140 on 

April 28, 2009. Specifically, Friends of the Earth filed the petition for rulemaking and collateral 

relief with the EPA Administrator and requested that EPA undertake the following actions: 1) 

Issue standards under section 312 of the Clean Water Act updating the vessel sewage discharge 

performance standards found in 40 C.F.R. § 140 for Type II Marine Sanitation Devices; and 2) 

Create strong monitoring, recordkeeping, and reporting requirements under section 312 to ensure 

compliance with vessel discharge performance standards. 

FoE’s April 2009 petition has been submitted to this docket and we would like to incorporate by 

reference all of the information submitted in that petition into these comments. FoE would also 

like to provide information to EPA in response to the data requested in the current Federal 

Register notice. 

FoE Responses to EPA Questions: 

1. What existing public or private data sources are available for use in identifying, categorizing, 

and describing the universe of vessels operating on U.S. navigable waters that also use sewage 

treatment devices? 

• Friends of the Earth Cruise Ship Report Card (available at www.foe.org/cruisereportcard) 

contains a database of 11 cruise lines and 113 cruise ships operating in U.S. waters and 

identifies which cruise ships are operating Type II MSDs and those ships that have installed 

Advanced Wastewater Treatment Systems (AWTS). 

• Data gathered by EPA Region 9 regarding the California statewide vessel sewage NoDischarge Zone (available at 

http://www.epa.gov/region9/mediacenter/nodischarge/index.html). 

• Data from the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation’s cruise ship 

permitting program (available at http://www.dec.state.ak.us/water/cruise_ships/reports.htm). 

 

4

See 40 C.F.R. § 140. 

5

 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Cruise Ships White Paper 13 (2000); available at 

http://water.epa.gov/polwaste/vwd/upload/2004_10_12_oceans_cruise_ships_white_paper.pdf. 

6

 Friends of the Earth is a public interest, non-profit advocacy organization, whose mission is to defend 

the environment and champion a just and healthy world. The organization works to stop environmental 

damage and to protect human health and the planet by reducing pollution and reducing dependence on 

fossil fuels. Founded in San Francisco in 1969 by David Brower, Friends of the Earth now maintains its 

headquarters in Washington, D.C. and its West Coast office in San Francisco and is the U.S. voice of the 

world’s largest network of grassroots environmental groups, with affiliates in over 77 countries. 
Friends of the Earth 

November 9, 2010 

Page 3 

3

2. What existing technical information is available on the performance, effectiveness and costs of 

various vessel sewage treatment devices, including performance testing data? 

• Friends of the Earth submitted data to EPA in response to our queries to AWTS 

manufacturers regarding performance standards for ship sewage treatment systems. Both GE 

and Hamworthy responded to our requests and the information we submitted to EPA is 

summarized below: 

Fecal Coliform Biological Oxygen 

Demand 

Total Suspended Solids 

GE Zenon AWTS <2.2 CFU/100mL 

(after disinfection) 

<2 mg/L (typically 

non-detect) 

<1 mg/L (typically nondetect) 

Hamworthy 

AWTS 

< 2 MPN/100ml (or 

below detection 

limit) 

n/a <5 mg/l (or below 

detection limit) 

• EPA also produced an economic assessment of installation of AWTS as a part of the 

Cruise Ship Discharge Assessment Report. EPA estimates that it would cost $7.09 per 

passenger to operate and maintain a new AWTS system on a large cruise ship.7 A wide 

range of advanced wastewater treatment systems are currently available, and most Type II 

MSD systems can be converted into these advanced treatment systems.8 Some AWTS are 

available as complete modular packages, which can minimize the costs of installation. The 

installation of AWTS on a cruise ship costs roughly between 2 to 10 million dollars per ship.9 

Royal Caribbean International, the second largest cruise operator in the industry, is investing 

$100 million to equip their entire fleet with AWTS.10 Yet, to date, Royal Caribbean has only 

installed AWTS on 45 percent (10 of 22) of its cruise ships, and of the 11 cruise ship 

companies operating in U.S. waters that we have updated data for, only 55 percent 

(approximately 62 of 113) have installed AWTS. 

Cruise ships travel to and from ports all over the U.S. and have significant impacts on our marine 

environments and human health.11 The current regulatory program for the treatment of sewage 

from these and other large vessels is woefully inadequate and has failed to keep up with both the 

 

7

 EPA, “Economic and Benefits Analysis of the Final Vessel General Permit (VGP),” 76-77 (2008); 

available at http://www.epa.gov/npdes/pubs/vessel_vgp_economicanalysis.pdf. 

8

 Available systems include the Hamworthy MBR system, the ROCHEM LPRO system, the ROCHEM 

Bio-Filt system, the Zenon ZeeWeed MBR system, the Scanship treatment system and the Hydroxyl 

CleanSea system. See EPA 2008 Cruise Ship Assessment supra note 2, at 2-13, 14. 

9

 Charles Q. Choi, Cruise Lines Face More Policing of Waste Disposal, New York Times, March 25, 

2007, available at http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/03/25/travel/25heads.html?pagewanted=print. 

10 Press Release, Royal Caribbean, Royal Caribbean International Advanced Wastewater Purification 

Systems (Apr. 14, 2008), available at

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/content/en_US/pdf/AWP_Updates/RCI_AWP_WebUpdateApr2008.pdf. 

11 Cruise ships travel to ports in Florida, South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, 

New York, Maine, Massachusetts, Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, California, Washington, Alaska and 

Hawaii and travel in all coastal and Great Lakes waters. 
Friends of the Earth 

November 9, 2010 

Page 4 

4

growth of the industry and the development of sewage treatment technologies. Federal 

regulations governing the discharge of sewage effluent from vessels are outdated and must be 

modernized to incorporate treatment and monitoring technologies already on the market and 

utilized by approximately 50 percent of the cruise ships travelling our waters. 

State standards have led the development of these new technologies, but a minimum standard 

requiring the use of these technologies across all U.S. waters and by all cruise lines is crucial. 

EPA correctly acknowledged, more than ten years ago, that the applicable “standards were 

developed in 1976 and may no longer be sufficiently stringent in light of available new 

technologies.”12 Federal law requires the EPA to protect the nation’s waters and such protection 

necessitates the EPA to update current Type II MSD standards by incorporating the best 

practicable control technology available. Updating Type II MSD regulations to account for 

available technological improvements and efficiencies is both warranted and long overdue. 

Thank you very much for your consideration. Please feel free to contact me at 415-544-0790 

x223 or mkeever@foe.org if you have further questions or require more information regarding 

the information we have submitted. 

Sincerely, 

Marcie Keever 

Oceans & Vessels Project Director 

Friends of the Earth 

 

12 33 C.F.R. § 159.3; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Cruise Ships White Paper 13 (2000).