Heather Lende
Haines, Alaska - November 10, 1999
A Royal mess
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Since then Anchorage Daily News reporter Paula Dobbyn has taken a closer look at cruise ships in Alaska. In a series of articles she revealed that these foreign registered ships legally dump hundreds of thousands of gallons of dirty dish water. A typical cruise ship carries 2000 passengers, generating 50 gallons of waste water per person a day. With twenty ships in the region at a time, that's 2 million gallons daily. It's not just soapy dish water, but stronger cleaners like ammonia and disinfectants.
Dobbyn also reported that cruise ships are allowed to grind up garbage and pump sewage overboard in several areas near here that are three miles from shore. Southeast Alaska's Inside Passage is a series of island filled channels and fjords, so the few places that are technically outside the international three mile limit are not open ocean.
In Haines it costs us a small fortune to dispose of everything from sewage to garbage because of strict federal and state laws designed to keep Alaska clean. The landfill was recently shut down and all our trash is now shipped to Washington. It costs my household 47.50 a month to get rid of it. You can imagine how we felt after learning that nearly every summer day the floating equivalent of twenty towns the size of Haines were dumping a lot of their waste, perhaps all of it, over the side.
In October the people of of Haines and Juneau, in the privacy of the ballot booth, voted against the cruise lines by taxing tours and cruise ship passengers. Some say it was the wrong vote for the right reason. New taxes are frowned on by independent minded Alaskans, but it was the only way to register discontent with a tourism industry a lot of people feel is out of control.
The vote sure hasn't solved the problem. Cruise lines are questioning the legality of Juneau's five dollar per passenger tax, and in Haines a 4% tax on all tours has only made matters worse. The local tour guides are hurt and angry about what they perceive is a vote against them. Reacting to the outcry from business leaders, the Haines Borough Assembly is trying to figure out ways to ignore the voters and repeal the tax. If we're not careful, the Alaska Army National Guard will have to be called in to enforce democratic elections.
Oscar Wilde once said that faced with a choice between his country and a friend, he'd favor the latter. The trouble in Haines is that the country is Alaska and both it and our friends are all mixed up in the reasons for living in this remote and beautiful place. So while I'm aghast at the disregard the large cruise lines seem to have for both the people who live here and the water that is often in my view, from my bedroom at home to the bank on Main Street, I'm not ready -- yet -- to attend a public hearing and say so. I can't.
My sister works for one of the airlines that gives glacier flight seeing trips. My daughters' gymnastic coach has a summer tour business. My husband and I have many friends that depend on the tourists in order to make a living.
Which is why at the first big party of the fall, a Mexican potluck, I skipped around the election, not saying anything that would betray the way I voted. The friend I shared bean dip with gives tours to cruise ship passengers. She told me how bad she felt and insisted that people don't realize tourism is all that supports Haines fragile economy. Then she said if this attitude keeps up, she might just pack up and move, something I hope won't happen.
The cruise lines haven't helped either. Rather than use the vote as a starting point to improve their damaged reputation and find out why people are so unhappy with them, they're behaving like spoiled children, threatening not to play with us anymore if they don't get to choose the game and make up all the rules as they go along.
Princess Cruises has already pulled one ship out of Haines for next summer and every day there's another rumor of canceled dockings. While some people may not care if Haines ever has another cruise ship in port, most agree some sort of happy medium is possible.
Fortunately help is on the way.
Michelle Brown, Commissioner of the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, has invited representatives from the cruise lines to a December meeting in Juneau to talk about voluntarily coming up with better ways to get rid of their waste. Cynics say it's like asking the fox to guard the hen house, but at least it's start. Alaska's congressional delegation, and some state officials, think the next step may be federal regulation of all foreign flagged cruise ship's, to protect Alaska's coast line, fisheries and small communities like Haines.
It can't happen soon enough.