Sludge Watch ==> Cruise Ship Sewage - All Ashore? Dump at Sea? Plasma Arc Energy?

[Maureen Reilly]

Friday, February 9, 2007

Grant M. Haller / P-IAndy Arago, a senior operator, looks over a secondary 
clarifier tank at King County's West Point Treatment Plant in Magnolia last 
week.
Cruise ship waste: All ashore?
Port urged to consider treating it for farms

By KRISTEN MILLARES BOLT
P-I REPORTER

The cruise ships that come to Seattle each summer bring something you don't 
find advertised in glossy brochures -- millions of gallons of human waste.

'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

· Read the most recent cruise ship dumping agreement between the Port of 
Seattle, the North West CruiseShip Association and the Department of Ecology 
(PDF, 1.4MB)
· Find out more about results of the agreement
· Read about the incident that led to the 2004 agreement
· Read about when the deal was struck

All that waste can fuel blooms of algae, the decomposition of which strips 
oxygen from the water and, if certain species grow, can make shellfish 
poisonous to people.


..........................

There are many ways to handle that waste, but officials at the Department of 
Ecology would like the Port of Seattle to consider taking environmental 
protection one step further as they prepare to spend $60 million on a new 
facility for the ships near Magnolia.

They'd like the cruise ships to look at pumping waste ashore, where it would 
be treated and used for fertilizer on farms and forestlands.

It appears port staff and the cruise industry aren't eager to explore the 
idea, but environmentalists and some commissioners -- including Port 
Commission President John Creighton, who has made environmental stewardship 
a top priority -- aren't backing down.

"They make such a big deal about the systems they have bought for treating 
wastewater, but what they don't tell you is that after those fancy filters 
are done, they dump this concentrated crap into the ocean," said Fred 
Felleman, a Bluewater Network environmental consultant who is active in 
maritime environmental issues. "This is a great opportunity for the port to 
demonstrate its environmental leadership."

Creighton would like the commission to get a full appraisal of the idea from 
port staffers, who he believes have been stonewalling with misleading 
information about the onshore capacity to handle the waste.

Environmentalists want the port to study the matter now, so any plan could 
be implemented when the cruise terminal's construction begins in June with a 
projected opening in April 2008.

Creighton thinks the port may not want to include any changes to sewage 
disposal in the new Terminal 91 project because it would drive the project's 
price tag -- which includes an additional $59 million for making Terminal 30 
suitable for containers -- past the $120 million trigger point at which the 
commission could yank its approval.

When the port staff asks for the commission's authorization of the 
environmental impact statement this month, Creighton hopes to get enough 
votes to keep the project moving while allowing the port to expand its 
environmental efforts without passing the financial cost to the taxpayer.


Dealing with waste

The average Alaska-bound cruise ship generates about 28,000 gallons of 
sewage sludge during the seven-day jaunt from Seattle, according to port 
staff. From May to September of this year, 150 cruises are bound for Alaska 
from the Port of Seattle.


They will generate about 4.2 million gallons of sewage sludge. That's not 
even counting the 50-plus other cruise ships sailing through Seattle next 
year.

At present, the cruise lines have a few options for dealing with waste:


Collect the waste to dry and burn before dumping it.


Collect the waste to dry and burn it and send it ashore.


Collect it to be properly treated and handled by an onshore private company.


Collect it and dump it into the ocean 12 miles offshore, the most 
cost-effective option that complies with federal law and then some.

The vessels go 12 miles to dump the waste because of an international 
agreement that extends the U.S. protections against sewage sludge dumping by 
nine miles.

Locally, much has been made of a North West CruiseShip Association accord 
with the port and Ecology to prohibit its members from discharging untreated 
sewage into Puget Sound. In response to environmental concerns in ports of 
call such as Seattle, the cruise lines have begun deploying more advanced 
sewage-treatment systems onto their vessels.

"All the ships that operate in this region -- 27 ships out of Vancouver, 
Seattle and San Francisco -- all have advanced wastewater-treatment systems 
onboard that purify the water to near drinking-water standards," said North 
West CruiseShip Association John Hansen.

Under the Port of Seattle agreement, cruise vessels can use those systems to 
strain the solid material from the raw sewage. Once the solids are 
separated, the rest is treated and can be discharged into the water within 
one nautical mile of the port berth while the ship is traveling at 6 knots.

That deal has been trumpeted by the cruise lines and the port.

But what cruise spokesmen don't like to talk about is how -- after treating 
the raw sewage before discharging it into the sound -- most vessels store 
the concentrated waste that is left until they are 12 miles offshore and 
dump it into the ocean.

Some operators, such as Royal Caribbean, have committed to drying and 
burning all sewage sludge. Others that pass through Seattle still use 
outdated systems for treating and are not allowed to dump any of their 
wastewater in Puget Sound.

In December, Ecology invited members of King County's wastewater division to 
a meeting between the port and the cruise lines to discuss pumping the waste 
ashore into King County storage tanks that would be built to handle sewer 
overflows during rainy winter months.

"I believe that if a sludge intake pipe is feasible, it may be a very 
worthwhile project to pursue," Creighton wrote some of his supporters. "It 
could be a signature project of our green-port efforts."

During summer weekends, nine cruise ships leave and arrive in 
clusters.Filing in and out of the Port of Seattle like ducklings, many 
travel the same path through the Strait of Juan de Fuca and through the open 
ocean close to the west side of Vancouver Island before going eastward to 
catch the upper half of the Inner Passage.

"Three leave at a time through the strait, so one could be discharging on 
top of the discharge of another," Felleman said.

After the sewage sludge hits the propellers and fans out into the water, 
nutrient-deprived algae begins using the sludge to grow. That algae begins 
to grow quickly, forming blooms that, like the sludge, are decomposed by 
bacteria that consumes oxygen in the process. If too many cruise ships dump 
their sewage sludge in the same spot, it can create areas of oxygen-deprived 
water devoid of marine life.

Pumping the waste ashore would eliminate that scenario.

If cruise ships were to pump waste ashore, it could be treated and used for 
fertilizer spread either on farms or recovering forestland, such as the 
Mountains to Sound Greenway.

Greg Bush, the manager of planning and compliance for King County's 
wastewater division, said the upcoming Interbay expansion project also could 
be suited for sludge storage and transportation in the summer.

Once the waste is on shore, it could be trucked to the South Treatment Plant 
in Renton or piped to the West Point Treatment Plant in Magnolia. At both 
facilities, the waste would be turned into fertilizer.

The cruise lines are hesitant to say it's a good idea, even if the port puts 
up the money for the infrastructure, because it would mean paying for the 
disposal of waste they can dump or burn at their own discretion.

An Interbay pumping station is already in place close to the docks that 
would be used by the cruise ships, and it is hooked up to the West Point 
Treatment Plant by a large pipe.

That station, West Point, and the pipe that connects them all have capacity 
in the summer to handle output from the cruise lines, according to Bush and 
West Point Manager Jim Pitts.

But in materials prepared for a presentation to the commission, port 
staffers wrote that West Point and the connecting pipe didn't have the 
capacity, which Creighton said isn't true.

What is not clear at this point, Bush said, is whether another pipe that 
runs by the docks and the short distance to the pumping station could handle 
additional waste. Running pure sewage sludge through pipes meant for both 
raw sewage and storm water could also cause the pipes to corrode, King 
County engineer Eric Davison said.

The port needs to reconcile all the concerns, Creighton said.

Commissioner Bob Edwards believes the port needs to take time to study the 
matter, saying the sludge project is an add-on that should be put off.

"Is this as high a priority as cleaning up Puget Sound?" Edwards asked.

P-I reporter Kristen Millares Bolt can be reached at 206-448-8142 or 
kristenbolt at seattlepi.com

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/303063_cruise09.html



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Seatrader Inside News
PyroGenesis seeks London float
20th June 2006
PyroGenesis, a manufacturer of plasma waste treatment systems, said it will 
seek a listing on the London Stock Exchange’s Alternative Investment Market 
(AIM) next month.

The Montreal-based company won an exclusive development contract for plasma 
waste treatment systems with the U.S. Navy in 1999 and its first cruise 
system has been operating on Carnival Cruise Lines’ Fantasy since 2003.

UK media reports said PyroGenesis will be valued at around £45m on the AIM.

After developing and testing with the U.S. Navy and Carnival, “we now look 
forward to stepping up our production and marketing activities to highlight 
the benefits of plasma to help promote it as an accepted mainstream waste 
treatment solution”, said Peter Pascali, PyroGenesis chief executive.

Funds raised will be used to finance contract performance guarantees, 
purchase the company’s 6,000-square-meter Montreal site, extend the current 
product line and expand working capital. PyroGenesis also aims to set up a 
UK sales office to serve the UK, continental Europe and Asia.

The company is being advised by brokers Williams de Broe in Leeds.

PryoGenesis manufactures two systems that use super-hot plasma to convert 
solid waste into energy and non-hazardous gases. The Plasma Arc Waste 
Destruction System (PAWDS) treats combustible waste on ships, while a 
separate system treats land-based waste streams.

PryoGenesis said its modular PAWDS can be retrofitted on cruise ships 
without removing them from service and in under three weeks. In October 
2003, the company installed a five tons per day system on Carnival’s 
Fantasy.

Cost of the system ranges from £750,000 to £2m depending on capacity and 
whether energy recovery is chosen as an option.

http://www.pyrogenesis.com/content_en/media_center/articles/seatrader.asp