Do Cruise Ships Dump Their Sewage In The Ocean

We have sewage treatment plants onboard cruise ships or any ships.

Do cruise ships dump their sewage in the ocean. According to Friends of the Earth a non-governmental environmental group which used the US Environmental Protection Agency data to calculate that a single 3000 person cruise ship pumps 150000 gallons of sewage into the ocean per week. Royal Caribbean touts the fact Symphony of the Seas the worlds largest cruise ship is actually a zero-landfill ship. When factoring in all types of boats this total figure could be as high as 1 billion gallons per year.

Cruise ships do not dump raw sewage - they do release treated waste when sufficiently far off shore. All cruise ship sewage goes through what is called sewage treatment where solid and liquid waste is separated and sterilized then the solid is incinerated and the liquid is released back into the ocean. It is perfectly legal for cruise ships to dump treated sewage in the ocean as long as they are three miles offshore.

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The sewage on the cruise ship includes the wastewater from the bathrooms toilets urinals medical premises and other similar facilities. Three miles from shore the cruise ships that flock to the Caribbean cross a boundary where the sea becomes a dump for metal glass and other waste that is flushed overboard. As previous answers have pointed out cruise ships dont dump raw sewage into the sea.

Most raw sewage dumped into the oceans actually comes from seaside cities usually by a pipe which sends the sewage several miles out to sea before releasing it. Every day a cruise ship operates it produces 30000 gallons of sewage and is allowed to dump treated sewage anywhere in the ocean except in Alaska where the laws prevent such actions. When it comes to handling treatment and disposal of sewage on the ship.

In fact according to the latest Cruise Ship Report Card by Friends of the Earth they might be about the worst. Federal law requires that cruise ships only dump treated wastewater if they are within three nautical miles of shore. But beyond that point its essentially a.