Industry assured us that its sewage was being fully treated and its untreated graywater was benign. Now, industry is responding by aggressively looking for better treatment systems. Industry assured us that there were no problems with air emissions. Yet, last summer there were far too many haze violations. Industry is now acting to correct that by, for instance, Princess Cruises is working with CBJ to hook up to shoreline power.
Corrections are indeed good.
But what s better, what s necessary, is to prevent violation. For that to happen, there must be proactive planning and verification that compliance is occurring. Which leads to the third goal of the legislation. And, that is treating the cruise ship industry just like every other major industry in Alaska. The cruise ship industry generates large quantities of wastes, more than many other fully regulated industries, yet has been virtually unregulated.