VANCOUVER ISLAND WINDTALK

Posted: **Wed May 16, 2007 4:01 pm**

Have a read:

DESTINATION WATCH

BREAKING NEWS

The Minister of Sludge

& Minister of Hot Air

will make their long-awaited joint

"Get Tough on Shipping Pollution"

Greenwash Announcement tomorrow

(see their news release below).

Expect to hear about zero discharge for small pleasurecraft like the U.S. ("Oops! We forgot money for pumpout Lawrence"), and possibly free 'green' toilet paper (afterall we know the big ship regs are pitiful compared to Alaska ) for the million plus foreign cruise ship passengers which will now be legally permitted to annually discharge hundreds of thousands of tonnes of their so-called "treated" human waste, and vessel greywater, in Canadian inshore waters, and even our treasured marine protected areas under tomorrow's announced regulations .

Once again , in less than a couple of weeks , the Conservatives have let Canadians shamefully down on an eco-challenge with their "Pump It, Don't Dump It" for small recreational boaters and "Dump it, Don't Mention It" for the big commercial cruise ship vessels announcement.

You do have to hand it to these grandmasters of greenwash, as linguistic artists that candies up large ship sewage sludge discharging and masquerading support for egregious polluting felons as if they were truly caring ocean conservationists that care about the water quality of marine protected areas and the endangered marinelife they will be choking to death. Who ever said you couldn't ever make a photo opportunity out of doing nothing about big ship pollution -- was wrong.

On the eve of yet another Conservative faux-green announcement, Canadian deserve immediate answers to the following:

How is it that the Harper government facing the previous election, announced millions for municipal sewage treatment in Victoria and other municipalities but sees no impropriety in accepting the word of the cruise industry (without independent verification and inspection) , dutifully downplaying discharging voluminious amounts of sewage sludge, blackwater and greywater in Canadian waters (especially National Marine Conservation Areas and smaller marine protected areas), and telling Canadians such discharges will do no harm to our marinelife or pose a human health risk to our beaches and shellfish areas without vessel data disclosures and biodiversity studies to prove it?

One would be most remiss not to ask in the face of such a govt-corporate greenwash : Just how much did these international pollution pirates pledge to the Harper government re-election campaign to continue using Canadian waters as the "designated toilet" of the international cruise ship fleet?

And how long will Canadians now wait for a new government to deliver a badly needed stand alone cruise ship waste bill (that will actually live up to the sludgemeister rhetoric to actually protect ocean ecosystems from cruise ship pollution)?

Lastly, will the Canadian media jeopardise their lucrative cruise ship industry advertising revenues to do the right thing and honestly investigate below the surface to see what regulations that will legally condone and perpetuate countless ship discharge plumes are harming?

Howard Breen

Posted: **Fri May 18, 2007 2:20 pm**

More unfortunate news:

YESTERDAY - D a r k D a y for O c e a n P r o t e c t i o n in C a n a d a
This year's Ocean Day - June 8th - will be a particularly grim one for Canada's three coasts.

For Immediate Release

May 17, 2007

"Harper Government Approves New P3 Shipping Pollution Regulations"

Full Steam Ahead! Cruise Pollution Mounts with No End in Sight

Victoria, B.C. - BC environmental group Travel Just is calling the government's new regulatory framework to crack down on ocean pollution "P3 Shipping Regulations," and the Harper government's third major greenwash announcement (following the Clean Air Act and Green Plan response to Global Warming).

Harper government gazetted its final version of its controversial shipping regulations yesterday. See: http://canadagazette.gc.ca/partII/2007/ ... r86-e.html

Travel Just suggests the well-used P3 acronym stands for "Pollution Prevention Postponed" in the case of Transport Canada's new regulations which do little to prevent marine pollution from large ships. They regard the new regulations as a "greenwash" and an "unbelievable sweetheart deal" for industry, coming with a very high cost for the Canadian ocean environment.

In the absence of any evidence to support the government's claims that this is "a step forward," Travel Just concludes that such pollution prevention claims are unsubstantiated, and in fact, will increase cruise ship pollution. Travel Just spokesperson Howard Breen said, "Expect a bumper cruise sludge season this year care of federal Minister Lawrence Cannon, who obviously is asleep at the helm."

"Cannon gave Canadians exactly what industry wanted, and we expected: a stall. He is delaying the measures he has the power to impose now," remarked Breen, a former Canadian Marine Advisory Council consultation participant.

"Our experience in government regulatory consultation processes, is that the participants amend bills to improve and clarify, but not to thwart. The overwhelming feeling now is the past shipping regulation consultations were hijacked by irrelevant, inaccurate and damaging positions taken by industry lobbyists which have thrown into doubt the whole federal regulatory harmonization process," says Breen.

"We're being repeatedly asked: how do the new shipping pollution regulations measure up? The short answer: "You can't manage what isn't disclosed or measured," says Breen, a long-time marine conservationist residing on a BC gulf island, who is an avowed cruise ship watcher.

"The longer story is Transport Canada has spent millions of taxpayers dollars trying to get it right, and get it done. And what did the public and environment get in return? Unfortunately, the political resulting grade on their ocean protection efforts is is a very costly "D", says Breen.
"The industry is a serial pollution felon (e.g. sewage effluent, sewage and oily sludge, garbage etc.) who doesn't bring in engineers with holding tanks for its roundtrip voyages to clean up its act, but rather its public relations experts and lobbyists, and the Harper government industry-friendly regulations are proof of it," insists Breen. "Apparently Ministers Cannon and Baird are much more keen to designate critical habitat for cruise ships than the some 20 endangered species that will be adversely affected by cruise dumping in marine protected areas."

The new regulations do not address incinerator ash, sewage sludge, and grey water effluent disposal at sea with any new stricter pollution regulatory standards that governed cruise ships than existed before under a voluntary agreement with industry. "Now that government and industry have'sealed the deal' under statute they have taken away any new opportunity to penalize the industry for the foreseeable future," says Breen.

"In respect to lower GHG gas emissions from shipping the government should have sent out a sobering directive to the industry embedded in their new regs: “Start acting like our lives are depending on it, because our lives do depend on it.” Instead they opted to adopt voluntary instead of meaningful mandatory sulphur reductions in their fuels," says Breen.

Travel Just concludes the Conservative government has not "pulled up their socks to combat pollution or prevent the industry's own admission of dumping untreated sewage in the new National Marine Conservation Area in the southern strait. Travel Just now worries whether environmental justice will ever be served now that the regs have been approved.

"One thing is certain: the cruise industry and government, "the coalition of the unwilling," will be sailing rough waters together, engulfed in the sludge of their own making, until they make the real first step -- admitting their denial," states Breen.

- 30 -

Thank you for considering our views, and please feel free to contact us for more information:

Howard Breen, Marine Campaign Coordinator,

Travel Just

(250) 247-8813

For further insightful reading on the cruise ship industry see:

http://www.cruisejunkie.com

OTHER TALKING POINTS FOR MEDIA USE:

"Frst it was the Clean Air Act, then the Green Plan and now their Shipping Regulations. We feel a little like Columbus. We are faced with the task of convincing Minister Cannon and the prime minister that the world is not flat, as they apparently would have Canadians believe, but, instead, is round. No amount of greenwashing will dispel Canadians' genuine desire to see an end to all government-sanctioned pollution," says Travel Just spokesperson Howard Breen.

"Even if we were to accept that they actually believe what they're saying, doesn't mean we or other Canadians should believe it, nor should it mean they escape serious questions about their past ministerial statements and actions," says Breen in response to ministerial statements.

"If we had 3 things to say to the Harper government and their shipping regulations: No special deals. No offshore advantage to foreign-flagged polluters. No special treatment for the privileged few in Miami." remarks Breen.

"Zero discharge of human waste is where we need to draw the line. Airlines do it. Railways do it. Bus Lines do it. Make it so Mr. Prime Minister," says Breen.

"The lack of knowledge about how nutrient and chemical impacts which bioaccumulate in Canadian waters must not lead to a neglect of what can and should be done now to prevent damage to our coasts," cautions Breen.

" It is environmental racism not to safeguard B.C. First Nation communities and their traditional shellfish resources from the annual tsunami of filth from cruise ships. There sweetheart deal will foul the Conservative's legacy in this parliament, and for years to come." says Breen.
"There’s no political mileage to be made from a sweetheart deal that ensconces corporate mediocrity and permits our coastal waters and beaches to be befouled," says Breen.

"The time for comprehensive, stand alone national cruise ship legislation with onboard, at-sea environmental monitors like Alaska is now," insists Breen.

VANCOUVER ISLAND WINDTALK

Cruise Ship Waste Water

Cruise Ship Waste Water