Princes Cruise Lines has agreed to pay $20,000 in fines for dumping water from on-board swimming pools into Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve in 2011.

The fine was announced by the Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday.

The EPA writes that Princess violated the Clean Water Act in May 2011 when more than 66, 000 gallons of pool water was discharged into the waters of Glacier Bay National Park.

EPA writes there was a software malfunction on the ship the Golden Princess, causing the pool dump valves to open. The malfunction allowed chlorinated water from six of the ship’s pools and spas to dump into Glacier Bay. Princess notified EPA of the discharges by phone the next day.

The EPA said the incident violated the wastewater discharge permit for large cruise ships, which prohibits the discharge of pool or spa water in national parks and refuges. The federal Clean Water Act allows the EPA to fine cruise companies for permit violations.

The Golden Princess can host more than 500 passenger and sails in Alaska during the summer season. It sails to Hawaii, the South Pacific and South America at other times of the year.

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Individual news stories are posted on the APRN news page. You can subscribe to APRN’s newsfeeds via email, podcast and RSS. Follow us on Facebook at alaskapublic.org and on Twitter @aprn.

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Bill Allows Tribes To Directly Apply For Federal Disaster Aid

Peter Granitz, APRN – Washington DC

Alaska did not receive any money in the Sandy relief bill that cleared the Senate Monday night. The bill did include a provision that will allow tribes to directly apply to the federal government for future disaster aid.

Board of Fishers Adopts New Kuskokwim River Plan

Angela Denning-Barnes, KYUK – Bethel

The Board of Fisheries adopted a new management plan for the Kuksokwim River which includes stronger language supporting the King salmon subsistence fishery.

Fish and Game Releases Chinook Research Plan

Alexandra Gutierrez, APRN – Juneau

Meanwhile, the Department of Fish and Game has just released its long-term research plan to manage – and ideally prevent – future Chinook salmon disasters like the one Alaska experienced last year. The proposal calls for better estimates of young salmon populations on a number of major rivers, and it puts an emphasis on getting more local knowledge of fish stocks.

Eastern Bering Sea Fish Survey Yields Surprising Results

Joaqlin Estus, KNBA – Anchorage

About a thousand people gathered for the Alaska Marine Science Symposium last week. Dozens of scientists spoke on topics ranging from ocean acidification, and changes in the productivity of plants and animals in the marine environment to jobs in science. A survey of fish in the eastern Bering Sea had surprising results.

Project Homeless Connect Offers Opportunities To Homeless Population

Ellen Lockyer, KSKA – Anchorage

Project Homeless Connect is a one-day, one-stop opportunity for homeless individuals to access state and city resources aimed at helping them find shelter and services. Anchorage’s outreach took place Tuesday, but homelessness is no longer a big city problem.  Smaller communities are facing a need to serve a transient and needy population without the facilities or budget to do so.

Quest Mushers WILL Think Of Massachusetts Man On The Trail

Emily Schwing, KUAC – Fairbanks

At least six Fairbanks-area Yukon Quest mushers will wear wristbands during this year’s Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race. The hand-made bracelets are part of a fundraiser to support a man in Massachusetts who is battling Cancer.

Public, Scientists Disagree On Cruise Ship Wastewater

Robert Woolsey, KCAW – Sitka

A bill that would relax the wastewater standards placed on cruise ships by Alaska voters is on the fast track in the Senate.

Princess Cruise Lines To Pay $20,000 In Fines

Margaret Friedenauer, KHNS – Haines

Princes Cruise Lines has agreed to pay $20,000 in fines for dumping water from on-board swimming pools into Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve in 2011.

The fine was announced by the Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday.

The EPA writes that Princess violated the Clean Water Act in May 2011 when more than 66, 000 gallons of pool water was discharged into the waters of Glacier Bay National Park.

EPA writes there was a software malfunction on the ship the Golden Princess, causing the pool dump valves to open. The malfunction allowed chlorinated water from six of the ship’s pools and spas to dump into Glacier Bay. Princess notified EPA of the discharges by phone the next day.

The EPA said the incident violated the wastewater discharge permit for large cruise ships, which prohibits the discharge of pool or spa water in national parks and refuges. The federal Clean Water Act allows the EPA to fine cruise companies for permit violations.

The Golden Princess can host more than 500 passenger and sails in Alaska during the summer season. It sails to Hawaii, the South Pacific and South America at other times of the year.

Following a disastrous year for king salmon runs on Alaska's Yukon River, fishery managers have decided, months earlier than usual, to announce fishing prohibitions for 2013. The fishing ban will apply to the first wave of king salmon headed up the river from the Bering Sea. Generally, two or three “pulses” of the fish make their way to spawning grounds beginning in late Spring and start tapering off mid-summer.

Oil major BP has announced that its top Alaska executive, John Mingé, has been picked to succeed Lamar McKay as chairman and president of BP America, and Janet Weiss, the current Alaska vice president of resources, will be taking over for Mingé as BP's Alaska president. The company says the leadership changes will take effect on Feb. 15.

“Alaska is the third most dependent on fluctuations in the global economy” Senior economist, Gary Schlossberg reported at the Statewide Economic Forecast Luncheon hosted by the World Trade Center of Alaska on January 15. Schlossberg describes what’s changed for international and national economies going into 2013, followed by a Statewide Economic Review and 2013 Forecast presented by Pat Burden of Northern Economics this week on Addressing Alaskans.

BROADCAST ON KSKA: Thursday, January 31, 2013 at 2:00 p.m. (Alaska time)

REPEAT BROADCAST: Thursday, January 31, 2013 at 7:00 p.m. (Alaska time)

RECORDED: January 15, 2013 at the Hotel Captain Cook in Anchorage

SPEAKERS:

• Gary Schlossberg, Vice President and Senior Economist, Wells Capital Management
• Pat Burden, President and Principal Economist, Northern Economics
  

HOST: World Trade Center of Alaska
EVENT: Statewide Economic Forecast Luncheon (Anchorage)

Addressing Alaskans features local lectures and forums recorded at public events taking place in Southcentral, Alaska. A variety of local organizations host speakers addressing topics that matter to Alaskans. To let us know about an upcoming community event that you would like to hear on Addressing Alaskans, please Contact Us with details.

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ADDRESSING ALASKANS ARCHIVE

Audio will be posted following radio broadcast

Suicide is a tough topic in Alaska. Too many of the state's young people, including members of the state's Native communities, consider killing themselves. Some will have failed attempts to end their lives. Too many will succeed. Increasingly, Alaskans are starting to talk about it, to bring the despair out from its quiet, pained darkness and into the light. “We Breathe Again,” a film dedicated to the topic, aims to be a part of the solution.

A bill that would relax the wastewater standards placed on cruise ships by Alaska voters is on the fast track in the Senate.

The Senate Resources committee took the first public testimony on Senate Bill 29 last Friday (1-25-13). Proponents of the bill advocated for the lower standards, saying that the current law unfairly puts ships under tighter rules than Alaskan communities. The leading opponent of the bill was a marine ecologist, who was dissenting from her colleagues on the science advisory panel that studies cruise ship wastewater.

Gov. Parnell is putting his weight behind SB29 to expedite permitting for cruise lines by this summer.

Karla Hart, with Alaska Community Action on Toxics, urged the Senate Resources committee to slow down.

“The risk of quick action on your part is that you’ll betray the voters of Alaska, who voted to have this higher standard of clean water.”

Hart reminded the committee that the amount of discharge was significant. More people visit Alaska on cruise ships each summer than live in the state. She did not think leveling cruise ship discharge with local communities made sense.

“If an Alaska community doesn’t meet discharge standards, it’s in our front yard. We know where it comes from. We know who’s responsible, and we have to clean it up. Ships discharge anywhere, so remote areas that you might go to for subsistence harvests or commercial fishing that you might go to because you think they are clean, because they are far away from any apparent discharge, could be getting a pretty substantial burden over time, because a lot of these things are heavy metals that bioaccumulate.”

Alaska voters in 2006 passed the statewide Cruise Ship Initiative, which set wastewater standards “at the point of discharge.” The Department of Environmental Conservation subsequently granted cruise lines temporary relief from these requirements, to allow them time to install the necessary treatment systems.

Putting ships on a different standard than Alaskan communities was a major argument against the initiative. John Kimmel, with Cruise Line Agencies of Alaska told the committee that Senate Bill 29 would correct a flaw in the law that voters adopted.

“The cruise ships really need to be held to the same standard as everyone else. The original initiative held them to a higher standard than everyone else. This fix is going to make it more fair for the cruise lines.”

A variation of this theme has made it to the table from a different direction: The Alaska Cruise Ship Wastewater Science Advisory Panel, in a preliminary report, says that many ships now meet or exceed Alaska water standards, except for a few key heavy metals, like copper. The report concludes that there would be little, if any, environmental benefit to requiring cruise ships to adopt additional treatment methods in the future.

The report gave advocates of the cruise industry an opening to talk about science. This is Andy Rodgers, the deputy director of the Alaska State Chamber of Commerce. He testified that his organization has now adopted a position “Advocating for legislation and regulations that are based on sound science, as opposed to a precautionary method.”

And this is Bob Janes, a tour operator from Juneau.

“I am not a scientist, but I think this subject is all about science.”

But at least one bona fide scientist who testified before the Senate Resources committee disagreed with the conclusions of the Science Advisory Panel – which she herself sits on. Michelle Ridgeway, a marine ecologist in Juneau, believes the other members of the panel underestimate the potential harm from the consistent discharge of heavy metals.

“Quite frankly, I think we’ll be appalled by the long-term degradation to the marine ecosystem if we allow this to go forward in this form.”

Ridgeway thinks applying rules for shore-base treatment plants – which allow for mixing zones – to cruise ships will ultimately create a kind of Sophie’s choice for the state.

“I believe it will be exceedingly excruciatingly difficult for Alaskans to concur on where it is between a 0 to 3 nautical mile area – our state waters – that we find it’s acceptable for vessels to discharge water that contains copper, zinc, nickel, and ammonia at levels that are known to be acutely and chronically toxic to marine life that we all depend on.”

Read an open letter from Michelle Ridgeway to DEC Commissioner Larry Hartig.

Chip Thoma, president of Responsible Cruising in Alaska, said it was his organization’s preference that ships discharge all waste in federal waters. He urged the committee to maintain the water quality standards set by voters, saying it was likely that much of the copper contamination would eventually be reduced as ships modernized with the use of flexible plastic plumbing.

Senate Resources chair Cathy Giessel scheduled another hearing on SB29 for Monday afternoon, January 28, at which she invited members to propose amendments. A companion bill in the House, HB 80, was heard in that body’s Resources Committee on Monday afternoon as well.

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