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Celebrity Cruises is getting hit with a $100,000 fine for dumping graywater into the Sound. Maybe $100,000 sounds kind of steep for flushing some shower and sink water into the Sound? It happened ten times in nine days. Whoops. The hundred grand is out of the goodness of Celebrity's hearts, though, since there is no legislation that prevents cruise ships from dumping sewage into our water. What we have in the state of Washington is a "Memorandum of Understanding," which we've talked about at greater length in the past. The short version is that cruise companies agree to pay fines if they dump waste water in the Sound, but they can't be inspected and there's no potential for legal enforcement of the fines.
Image courtesy of Life Cinematic.
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I think it is time that we scramble jets from Whidbey Island and threaten to torpedo them the next time they dump thousands of gallons of human shit and piss into our Sound.
Doesn't anybody notice a disconnect between stories like this and the "the Sound is dying, let's spend zillions to figure out why" stories that are running RIGHT NEXT TO IT in the paper? These Celebrity jerks should be run out of town. Let 'em go pollute Vancouver's harbor instead.
Then go after the goddamn Atlantic Salmon farm on Bainbridge. 30 million pounds of waste a year, and they don't get a fine, they get a fucking medal.
There is zero support within the Port or the city government for running them out of town. We're the only state in the region without laws to govern cruise behavior in local waters and we're just wrapping up the construction of a brand new terminal designed for cruise ships and with freight to the Port declining or at best unstable the cruises aren't going anywhere soon. We need to legislate some protections.
Call me a radical tree hugger but I like my drinking water oil and shit free.
The Port of Seattle was very excited to have stolen cruise ship bidness from Vancouver. Sure, they might end up taking a few million dollars loss "on paper," but it sounds good to say they ate Vancouver's lunch. And now that cheeky Fnarf wants 'em run outta town because of a little "gray water" issue. Hell, the Sound already looks gray naturally.