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Key West debates benefits, future as cruise ship destination
BY TIMOTHY O'HARA
keysnews.com
The Citizen
looks at the cruise industry's impact on Key West in this two-day
series.
Today: The
environment: Cruise ships are the size of a floating city, with all the
garbage and toilet flushes associated with 3,000 people living together.
Monday: The
economy: Cruise ship passengers pay $10.63 for their port of call in Key
West, and then pump more money into the hands of local businesses and
workers as they buy food, drinks and souvenirs.
Photo:37929,left;KEY WEST -- Balance is the word city commissioners,
residents and business owners often use when talking about the cruise
ship industry.
The
southernmost city will always be a destination for both sea- and
land-based tourists, and no one doubts it is important. However, no form
of tourism draws more criticism than cruise ships. Residents don't want
the city to lose its charm and become another St. Thomas, Puerto Rico or
other cruise city. City officials have pledged to make sure the city,
not the industry, determines the future of the business in Key West.
The port of
Key West received its first regularly scheduled cruise ship, the
Sunward, in 1969. It came to port in Key West once a month, mooring at
either the Navy's Outer Mole or Pier B facility.
Between 1969
and 1984, the port of Key West received 266 port calls. The number of
vessels has since grown exponentially. Pier B, one of three cruise ship
piers will host 301 ships this fiscal year.
Commissioner
Harry Bethel believes the cruise industry needs Key West just as much as
the city needs cruise ships, he said. The commissioner also says that
the island can't handle more vessels.
"Have we
reached the saturation point? I think we have," Bethel said.
In 1993, the
city drafted an ordinance that limited the number of ships at Pier B to
seven a week, including ones that anchor offshore and ferry passengers
through Pier B. The owners of the pier, who work in conjunction with the
city on arranging port visits and scheduling, violated the resolution in
June and May by allowing more ships to berth there than allowed. The
city was on track to violate the ordinance two more times by the end of
the year, but rescheduled ships after The Citizen brought the
overscheduling to the port director's attention.
This fiscal
year city figures show:
* Pier B is
expected to bring in 586,844 passengers aboard 301 ships;
* Outer Mole
Pier will welcome 365,255 aboard 173 ships; and
* Mallory
Square will host 58,624 passengers aboard 51 vessels.
Each passenger
now pays $10.63 to leave the ship and stroll around Key West.
The city
receives 25 percent of the gross revenue from Pier B, while it receives
the full amount of fees collected from cruise ships that dock at Mallory
Square and the Outer Mole. Because it is privately owned, Pier B doesn't
have to follow restrictions on how many boats can dock at sunset and
other limitations the city has put on its own piers.
The growth in
the industry has caused alarm by some residents who fear an onslaught of
tourists on this small island and damage to the hundreds of miles of
living reef and wetlands.
The city
commission, earlier this month, directed staff to draft a resolution
requiring cruise ship companies to pump out sewage at the port, not
offshore. The cruise industry has agreed to pump out 12 miles off
Florida's coast, but by law the vessels can pump three miles offshore.
Key West is the first port city asking for a mandatory pump-out
ordinance.
The city is
also creating an Environmental Best Practices Committee to review
environmental issues and make recommendations related to cruise ships.
The committee would be made up of environmental, city, Navy and cruise
line representatives.
Groups like
Last Stand and Livable Old Town have served as environmental watchdogs
and actively champion causes that control cruise ship growth.
Last Stand
filed a lawsuit against the city in 2000, challenging plans the city
outlined in its bid for the Navy's pier and waterfront property during
the military base reallocation process. The group and the city reached a
settlement in which the city agreed to conduct a Quality of Life Study.
It is supposed to review the environmental and economic impacts of the
cruise industry on Key West. The city commission approved requirements
for the study last week and is seeking bids for the work.
tohara@keysnews.com
Passengers generate gallons of waste
BY TIMOTHY O'HARA
keysnews.com
Cruise ships
provide guests with more than the comforts of home. The 70,000 ton mega
cruisers have restaurants, bars, casinos, pools, exercise rooms and
living quarters. They are the Las Vegas and New Orleans of the high
seas.
But like any
city, especially after a New Year's Eve or Mardi Gras bash, there are
byproducts -- trash, sewage and pollution.
With cocktails
flowing and all-you-can eat buffets at the disposal of nearly 3,000
passengers, sewage loads rival that of small cities.
The typical
ship produces 30,000 gallons of sewage a day, which is about 10 gallons
for each passenger. Ships can legally dump sewage three miles from shore
or in the case of Key West, on the reef. Cruise lines agreed to dump
sewage 12 miles offshore in Florida waters, but no one is monitoring to
see if they are complying.
The revelers
also need clean glasses, clothes and linens, which can generate 360,000
gallons a day of detergent-laced water from sinks, showers, laundry
washing machines and dishwashers. There are no international or state
laws that control the discharge of "gray" water, which can contain toxic
substances from cleaning products.
More than
30,000 pounds daily of plastic beer cups, beads and other discarded
knickknacks and trash from Key West and other ports need to be
eliminated. Some of it is taken to shore for recycling or to the local
dump. Much of it, including plastics, is incinerated and the ash is
dumped into the sea.
During the
process, dioxins and heavy metals can be released into the air. If the
trash is not burned at a high enough temperature, plastic particles can
be discharged into the ocean.
Disposal of
sewage and trash becomes more of a problem as the number of cruise ship
port calls continues to rise in Key West and the number of vessels
roaming the open ocean increases. Fueling some local environmentalists'
concerns is the cruise ship industry's spotty track record that has led
to millions of dollars in fines.
Concerns about
sewage recently came to the forefront in Key West during a city
commission discussion about raising disembarkment fees and creating a
city committee to review the environmental and economic impact of cruise
ships.
Pump
or dump?
Commissioners
directed city staff to draft a resolution requiring all cruise ships to
pump out sewage at the dock, not in the ocean.
Key West,
surrounded by miles of living coral reef, is the first port to make such
a demand.
The city has
facilities to suck the sewage off the cruise ships and transport it to
the central wastewater treatment plant. The plant has the capacity to
handle the extra waste, said DeeVon Quirolo, executive director of the
nonprofit environmental group Reef Relief.
"The U.S Navy
is willing to pump out and cruise ships need to pump out. If cruise
ships can't do that, maybe they should go somewhere else," Mayor Jimmy
Weekley said earlier this month at a commission meeting.
His statement
was greeted with cheers at the packed meeting hall. It was greeted by
indifference in Washington by the president of the Internal Cruise Line
Council, a nonprofit lobbyist organization.
The trade
agency president, Michael Crye, contends that forcing cruise ships to
pump out in port is not necessary because nearly all ships dump miles
offshore. Also, of the 100 ships that his organization represents, 25
have advanced wastewater treatment facilities, which treat sewage to
levels nearly equal with drinking water, and more should be coming
online in the next few years, he said.
Advanced
treatment takes out heavy nitrogen and other nutrients that experts
believe cause red tides and other algal blooms.
"There is very
little environmental benefit to this," Crye said of the city
commission's proposal. "There is no benefit from taking wastewater to
nearly drinking water levels and then treating it again."
None of the
ships that come to Key West have been fitted with advanced water
treatment systems and there are no plans to retrofit them anytime soon,
Carnival and Royal Caribbean cruise lines representatives said. The only
ones fitted with the technology cruise the seas near Alaska, where state
regulations require onboard advanced wastewater treatment systems.
The equipment
itself costs $2 million and then companies can spend millions more to
install and test the equipment, Royal Caribbean spokesman Michael
Sheenen said. Cruise ships that dock in Key West have marine sanitation
devices and treat sewage at minimal levels. Crye says the sewage is
dispersed into the ocean at a level that equals one gallon of sewage to
4,000 gallons of water.
The city wants
more protection for the waters and reefs around the Keys. Others in town
in addition to the mayor believe cruise ships should pump out at the
dock.
A poll of 633
cruise ship passengers, sponsored by the environmental group Oceana,
showed that 72 percent of passengers surveyed believe that raw sewage
should not be dumped anywhere in the ocean. Twenty-five percent said
that it would be fine to dump treated sewage far enough offshore that it
would not impact local areas, according to the survey conducted by the
Washington-based Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research Inc.
Quirolo would
support waiving pump-out requirements for ships with Advanced Wastewater
Treatment systems, which meet the same quality standards as the city's
plant. Those standards are designed to minimize nutrient loads which
have been linked to plant and fish deaths.
The Florida
Keys National Marine Sanctuary is researching creating a no-discharge
zone for the entire 2,800 square-nautical-miles of the protected waters.
Environmental record
Many cruise
officials tout the millions the industry has given to environmental
groups for research and projects. Most recently, a Royal Caribbean
representative told the city commission the company plans to donate "a
six figure" sum to the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary for an
office and visitor center in Key West.
Five of six
ships guilty of illegal dumping -- the Tropicale, Sensation, Fantasy,
Ecstasy and Imagination -- use Key West as a port of call.
Company
representatives don't brag about the monetary settlements for illegally
releasing sewage, gray water and trash in nearshore waters and ports. In
the past five years, cruise ship companies have paid more than $60
million in fines and more than $90 million in the past 10 years, records
show.
A federal
grand jury last month indicted three Norwegian Cruise Line engineers for
concealing the overboard dumping of waste oil from the SS Norway in
2000. The incident already cost the company $1.5 million in criminal
fines.
The three are
charged with failing to maintain an oil record book and falsely
reporting discharges of oil-contaminated water. Company officials
admitted employees maintained false books and deliberately used fresh
water to trick a mechanical oil sensor designed to detect and limit oil
discharges.
An employee
blew the whistle to Environmental Protection Agency officials, producing
stacks of documents and a self-made videotape showing how employees
bypassed an oil-water separator, reports state.
Lack
of state regulation
Florida has no
state rules when it comes to trash, wastewater, gray water and ballast
water dumping. The state does have a memorandum of understanding with
the industry to not dump within 12 miles of shore, but no state agency
monitors the cruise industry to see if it is complying, Quirolo said.
"We want to
establish a set of checks and balances," Quirolo said. "We want
ordinances that are easily complied with and will benefit everybody.
They benefit from having water quality as well."
Other states,
like California, Washington and Alaska, have taken a more proactive
approach to regulating the industry.
Two bills are
currently facing state legislators in California. The legislation deals
with emissions from cruise ships by banning incineration in nearshore
waters and regulating discharge of wastewater. Washington legislators
are also introducing similar legislation dealing with water quality.
Alaska is the only state that has legislation requiring advanced
wastewater treatment systems.
tohara@keysnews.com
Thousands of cruise passengers create opportunities for viruses
BY MANDY BOLEN
keysnews.com
KEY WEST --
Seasickness has taken on a new meaning for cruise passengers in recent
years as highly contagious viruses have spread quickly through the
floating behemoths causing severe gastrointestinal illnesses, that, at
times, have sickened hundreds of passengers and crew.
Cruise ships
have been under strict scrutiny by the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention's Vessel Sanitation Program since October 2002. Each ship
coming from a foreign port is required to notify the CDC of every case
of gastrointestinal illness reported to a ship's medical staff at least
24 hours prior to the ship's arrival in the United States.
A special
report is required if the number of sick passengers or crew amounts to
at least 2 percent of the total, while an "outbreak" is defined by a 3
percent incidence.
Although
health officials said Friday that none of the so-called "sick ships" has
visited Key West, The Citizen reported in December 2002 that roughly 75
sick passengers were taken off Royal Caribbean's Majesty and boarded a
bus bound for Miami.
Steve Mason,
acting director of the Monroe County Health Department, had heard a
little bit about the incident, but did not know the specifics because
his agency was not involved.
The same
month, Carnival's Fascination reportedly docked in Key West while
carrying 200 sick passengers. According to CDC guidelines, passengers
who are known to be ill should be confined to their cabins and not
permitted off the ship.
Emergency room
workers at Lower Keys Medical Center have not seen an increase in the
number cruise ship passengers, ER manager Mary Gallo said last week,
adding that passengers may indeed have been sick, but did not require a
hospital visit.
In the event
that a ship arrived in Key West seeking hospital treatment for most of
its passengers, hospital CEO Nicki Will said the hospital would activate
one of its several disaster management plans.
"Obviously,
1,200 people at the same time would overwhelm any hospital," she said.
"But we would immediately begin calling in outside staff and probably
use our neighboring hospitals as well."
Vessel
sanitation
Dave Forney is
the chief of the CDC's Vessel Sanitation Program and explained that such
a program has existed since the mid-1970s.
"We found even
back then that the ships with the most number of sick people were cruise
ships," Forney said. "But that's also because they were the ships with
the most people on board."
Initially,
Forney said, the gastrointestinal illnesses, marked by vomiting and
diarrhea, were always traced back to a food or water source --
contaminated water or food that had not been stored at the proper
temperature and sickened people.
The CDC
developed uniform guidelines for potable water and food preparation and
storage to combat the problem.
"But we're
dealing right now with a totally different type of transmission," he
said. "This is not transmitted through food or water. We have known for
several years that this is a person-to-person transmission."
The type of
virus that has been causing illness spreads easily when someone does not
properly wash their hands and then touches another surface, Forney said.
"So someone
gets it on their hand and then goes down the grand staircase and leaves
it on there for the next person to pick up," he said, adding that such
viruses can live on surfaces for several weeks.
The number of
potential harbingers of a virus is unfathomable on a cruise ship, where
thousands of hands touch railings, lounge chairs, buffet lines and slot
machines.
When the next
person touches the grand staircase, he or she picks up the virus and can
both become ill and spread it to the next surface touched.
Controlling the virus
The most basic
method of preventing the Norwalk, or similar virus referred to as
noroviruses, the ones most often associated with cruise ship illness, is
thorough and frequent hand washing and avoidance of sick people.
The CDC's
Vessel Sanitation Program also has specific guidelines for cleaning
surfaces to reduce the viral load on board the vessel, Forney said.
When the
initial outbreaks were reported a few years ago, some cruise ships
remained in port for several weeks while crews disinfected and
decontaminated the ship. But officials have now identified additional
disinfectants that are more effective and cleaning protocols that can be
employed while the ship is in operation, Forney said.
Passengers
identified as being sick will be asked to remain in their cabin and will
not be allowed off the ship at its various ports of call.
"The cruise
ships entering Key West have 2,000 passengers on them, and whether it's
a norovirus or not, you'll have some who are ill, that's just a numbers
game," Forney said, adding that not all passengers report their
illnesses to crew members knowing they will be asked to remain in the
cabin.
"But there's
nothing inherently dangerous for the people already in Key West," Forney
said, likening the arrival of ship passengers to that of a Greyhound bus
that might have some sick people inside.
If a shipboard
outbreak is severe, the CDC, a division of the U.S. Public Health
Service, may quarantine an entire ship in port and not allow anyone off,
said Mason of the Monroe County Health Department.
Such
quarantines, along with the individual ones that keep sick passengers in
their cabins, are not popular with paying guests for obvious reasons.
Some passengers have sought compensation while some have taken legal
action claiming the cruise line should not have allowed certain ships to
sail knowing passengers could be exposed to highly contagious viruses
and instead should have kept it in port while crews thoroughly cleaned
its surfaces.
mbolen@keysnews.com
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