State, cruise industry forming guidelines

By Michele Kayal
Advertiser Staff Writer

State officials and cruise industry executives have begun to discuss setting up the first formal guidelines for the industry's environmental practices in Hawaii.

The Norwegian Cruise Line cruise ship the Sky sits docked at Pier 66 in Seattle. Norwegian will be basing another of its cruise ships, the 2,200-passenger Star, in Hawai‘i this December. Advertiser library photo • May 20, 2001

The group said it hopes to avoid initiatives recently taken in Alaska, which passed legislation to manage the state's environmental relationship with the companies.

"The benefit of doing this on a voluntary basis is we have the ability to do things very quickly," said Nancy Wheatley, Royal Caribbean Cruises' senior vice president for safety and environment. "Legislation is best if it's general and supported by regulations based on sound science. That takes a while."

Some state officials appeared to agree.

"The worst model is the Alaska model, where it ends up in court," said David Blane, director of the Office of Planning, who headed the meeting. "That's not the Hawai'i way to do things."

Representatives of Norwegian Cruise Line, Holland America Line and Carnival Cruise Line also spoke to the meeting, which drew about 50 state policy officials, Coast Guard officers, lawmakers, environmental advocates and members of the public. The policy-makers began meeting earlier this year to determine what to do with state and federal laws that often overlap and are to be enforced by at least three different agencies.

Hawai'i's cruise industry is expected to expand approximately twofold over the next three years, and state and environmental officials have begun to consider how to monitor the potential impact such growth would have on the Islands' fragile ecosystem.

In past years, environmental issues have gained a high profile as some lines were convicted of illegally dumping waste into the ocean. Recently, Norwegian Cruise Line, which will permanently base its 2,200-passenger ship the Star here in December, became the first company investigated under Alaska's new legislation after it discharged inadequately treated sewage into waters there.

Industry executives said a memorandum of understanding adopted last year by Florida's government and the cruise lines provides the most flexible model for addressing Hawai'i's environmental concerns.

The Florida agreement contains eight main points that say the companies will comply with environmental laws, cooperate with regulators, and design vessels to be environmentally friendly. Advocates of the framework say it is stricter than the legislation recently adopted in Alaska and can be changed faster as new issues arise.

"It's a living document — you can go back and change it," said Jim Walsh, Carnival Cruise Line vice president for environmental, health and safety.

In addition, Walsh and others said, the specifics can be adapted to Hawai'i's unique needs.

For instance, during meetings this week with lawmakers and agency officials, the executives said many people suggested that discharge guidelines now in place may not be sufficient to protect Hawai'i's interisland channels.

By law and the industry's own practices, ships are permitted to discharge untreated sewage once they are four miles from shore, which puts them between the islands.

As a group, the executives dismissed legislation — the model used in Alaska — as rigid, slow to change, and politicized.

"It runs into the political process," Walsh said.

The group is expected to meet again by the end of the summer, said Chris Chung, manager of Hawai'i's Coast-

al Zone Management Program, which convened the group, but it was unclear whether they would seek more information from the industry then.

No framework agreement is expected to be drawn by then, Chung said.

Michele Kayal can be reached at mkayal@honoluluadvertiser.com