Cruising for Trouble

Environmental protesters came out to say good riddance when the Crystal Harmony cruise ship pulled out of port in San Francisco yesterday. The Crystal Cruises company was banned from docking its ships in Monterey, Calif., in March because one of its ships had discharged tens of thousands of gallons of wastewater into the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. Enviros in San Francisco are frustrated that their city has taken no similar steps to crack down on the big ships, which pollute the air as well as the water. The Crystal Harmony burns so much dirty diesel fuel that it causes as much air pollution as 12,000 cars, says Teri Shore of Bluewater Network, an environmental group. A few hundred miles north, the Washington state Department of Ecology last week proposed that cruise ships be required to report to state authorities about where they are dumping waste in Washington waters. Seattle-area enviros were outraged last month when the Norwegian Sun cruise ship dumped 40 tons of raw sewage off the Washington coast.