Cruise ships, fishing boats and barges canSA国际影视传媒檛 haul all their wastewater they create doing laundry, showering and cleaning, and conservation advocacy group World Wildlife Fund Canada says their practice of dumping it into the Arctic Ocean is falling through the regulatory cracks.
SA国际影视传媒淚n 2016 we had 33 million litres of water [discharged into the Arctic Ocean],SA国际影视传媒� said Melissa Nacke, specialist for Arctic shipping and marine conservation at WWF-Canada. SA国际影视传媒淗owever, in 20 years we're expecting a doubling to 60 million litres of grey water. We need to get the rules right, right now.SA国际影视传媒�
Currently, there are no provisions related to grey waterSA国际影视传媒攚hich comes from showers, baths, laundry, dishwasher and galley wastewaterSA国际影视传媒攊n the Arctic Shipping Safety and Pollution Prevention Regulations, which govern waters north of the 60th parallel.
Grey water can contain nutrients, oils and grease, soaps, metals, microplastics, bacteria and pathogens, hair, bleach and other contaminants that can damage ocean ecosystems.
The unregulated dumping of this water can cause algal blooms and shellfish contamination, among other problems.
In Canadian waters south of the 60th parallel, the existing Vessel Pollution and Dangerous Chemicals Regulations require passenger vessels built after 2013 and carrying more than 500 passengers to treat grey water before it is released, and to release it more than three nautical miles from the shore.
In Alaska, there are stringent guidelines for dumping grey water in Arctic waters, which puts Canadian Arctic waterways at further risk, said Nacke.
SA国际影视传媒淪hips can essentially come around Alaska and then use Canada as a literal dumping ground for grey water,SA国际影视传媒� she said.
Nacke said ideal regulations would be close to AlaskaSA国际影视传媒檚, setting standards for both onboard treatment of water before dumping and for the distance from shore and sensitive areas that dumping can occur.
The reason for the regulatory gap, said Nacke, boils down to CanadaSA国际影视传媒檚 regulations having been developed and put in place in 1972, before there was much sea traffic in the North.
The language around waste in the regulations is vague, allowing many operators to define their grey water as not being waste, which eliminates any rules for where and how much it can be dumped, she said.
WWF-Canada just released a study on how much grey water is dumped in the Arctic and how much is expected to be dumped in the future, taking into account increased traffic as the sea ice lessens and mining, cruise, shipping and fishing traffic increases.
The study, completed by Vard Marine Inc., builds on an earlier one commissioned by Transport Canada and also conducted by Vard.
In an email response from Transport Canada, senior communications advisor Annie Joannette said Transport Canada is researching the feasibility of grey water treatment in the Arctic.
SA国际影视传媒淭he information could be used to amend the existing Vessel Pollution and Dangerous Chemicals Regulations to address the issue of greywater discharge north of 60 degrees latitude,SA国际影视传媒� she wrote.
Nacke said leadership on this issue has been taken up by a lot of operators, citing the highly publicized 2016 Northwest Passage tour by the cruise ship Crystal Serenity as an example.
SA国际影视传媒淐rystal Serenity, when they came through, they were exempted by Transport Canada because they claimed that none of their cleaning products were defined as waste,SA国际影视传媒� said Nacke. SA国际影视传媒淪o, technically, they were allowed to discharge wherever they wanted.SA国际影视传媒�
Despite this, they discharged all their waste 25 nautical miles from the shore, which is SA国际影视传媒渁 pretty big distance,SA国际影视传媒� she said.
SA国际影视传媒淚t was still untreated. It's still not great,SA国际影视传媒� said Nacke. SA国际影视传媒淏ut they were aware of the issue and were trying to address it. Future operators might not do that.SA国际影视传媒�
