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In Victoria, Cruise Ships Spew More Toxins than Assumed: Study

Sulphur dioxide levels at three times previous findings, says CRD report.

By Andrew MacLeod, 15 Mar 2010, TheTyee.ca

Victoria Cruise Ship

Cruise ship docked in Victoria Harbour.

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Cruise ship tourists milling about the streets of Victoria are more likely to encounter inviting smiles than frowns. But many residents worry about air pollution from the big vessels -- and a newly available study appears to confirm those fears, tripling the previous official estimate of local toxic sulphur dioxide emissions.

Over the past decade, the number of cruise visits has grown from none to more than 200 a year. On some summer days, five of the giant vessels pull up, each unloading thousands of passengers for a few hours of bus tours and horse carriage rides.

In a city where tourism is a major pillar of the economy, everyone from the city council to the Chamber of Commerce has welcomed the visits -- and the bulk of news coverage has focussed on the number of dollars being left in the city rather than on any negative impacts.

But an angrier response to the trend can be glimpsed on the Greater Victoria Harbour Authority's website where a community member complains about air quality near the city's cruise ship docks.

"The inaction by the GVHA to provide an effective solution to stopping cruise ship emissions being pumped into the residential areas of James Bay can be best described as criminal neglect," he wrote. "Eventually, we will reach the point of demanding compensation from the GVHA for its unwillingness to resolve this ongoing act of environmental terrorism being impacted upon our community."

On the website, a GVHA official responds by pointing to the James Bay Air Quality Study (JBAQS), a report that was ordered to appease the cruise industry's few naysayers -- most of whom live in James Bay homes a few hundred metres from the Ogden Point docks.

That 153-page 2008 report, based on 2007 research, was done for the Vancouver Island Health Authority and bears the logos of the GVHA, the University of Victoria, the province of British Columbia and various environmental consulting companies. While levels of some pollutants went up when cruise ships were present, the levels were well within provincial guidelines, it found.

Nothing to worry about, it essentially said -- and for some time that was the last word on the subject, muting calls for slowed cruise visit growth and measures to reduce air pollution.

Human health risk

But the authors of a newly available air quality report from Nov. 2009 -- based on data from 2008 and just posted to the Capital Regional District's website -- found that VIHA's study had grossly underestimated the pollutants that cruise ships spew out around Victoria.

"SO2 [sulfur dioxide] concentrations in the vicinity of Ogden Point may be much higher than was estimated in the JBAQS, and may be high enough in the James Bay community to be of concern for human health impacts in that area," wrote the authors of the Air Quality in the Capital Regional District report.

The James Bay study appears to have underestimated by a factor of three the amount of sulphur dioxide emitted by cruise ships, they found.

Even at relatively low levels, the gas harms plants. In higher concentrations, it can make it harder to breathe for people with respiratory diseases like asthma or bronchitas.

Measurements for both studies were made at the Topaz site on the opposite side of downtown, several kilometres from Ogden Point. The James Bay study estimated that the sulphur dioxide concentrations at Ogden Point would be five times as high as what was measured at Topaz.

If that holds true, the CRD report authors wrote, it would put the concentration at Ogden Point above certain B.C. and World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines. "This concentration would exceed the BC Level A ambient air quality objective of 450 μg/m3 [micrograms per cubic metre], and would also exceed the WHO 10-minute average guideline level of 500 μg/m3," they wrote.

Cruise ship visits were also associated with elevated levels of nitrous gases and particulate matter, the report said.

Some ships worse than others

Sulphur dioxide is released when fuels containing sulphur are burned, the report explained. There have been efforts to lower the amount of sulphur in gasoline and in diesel used in road vehicles. As a result, emissions have declined considerably in the last ten years, it said. "A similar sulphur reduction initiative for marine fuels may occur in the near future."

But such a reduction is yet to occur. Spikes in sulphur dioxide measured across downtown at the Topaz site correspond with cruise ship visits, they write. "It is immediately obvious that... SO2 concentrations measured at the Victoria Topaz site are generally higher when cruise ships are docked at Ogden Point than when there are no cruise ships in the harbour."

The highest one hour average concentration that they measured -- a level of 146 μg/m3 -- was at a time when cruise ships were present. That level was three times as high as the highest measurement made when no cruise ships were in the harbour.

The report even shows which ships are the likely culprits. While some vessels make regular visits without causing a spike, others appear to make the levels jump.

Sulphur dioxide levels were elevated during five of the Golden Princess' 18 visits and during eight of the 20 visits by its sister ship the Star Princess. Levels of the gas went up during five of the 23 visits of the Oosterdam and during six of the 21 from the Westerdam. And during six of the Norwegian Pearl's visits the levels also went up.

With the evidence now confirming what critics have said for years, the true test will be based on how the cruise industry and its many supporters in the city respond.

In the meantime, the GVHA is advertising a position for an environmental researcher. The person will report to the authority's manager of communications, according to an ad in Victoria's daily paper Saturday. [Tyee]

Andrew MacLeod is The Tyee’s Legislative Bureau Chief in Victoria. Reach him here.

23 Comments:

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  • Takuan

    2 years ago

    no shore power hook-ups?

    no shore power hook-ups?

  • Van Isle

    2 years ago

    Shore power

    Probably not shore power. It most likely would cost way too much for the time those ships are along side. The electrical switching gear on the shoreside would cost a bomb. On the shipside they too would have to have swtching gear to seperate power supply from the generators to the shoresupply side. Also there may be a problem if those ships use European voltages ie 380 volts @ 50 Hz. It can be done but cost a friggin bunch of money. The reason those ships pop into Victoria is the Jones Act which have rules for foreign flag Vessels plying American waters and ports

  • KWD

    2 years ago

    no power

    A couple of years old, but probably still relevant.

    http://www.cruisebruise.com/James_Bay_Frontier_Cruise_Ship_Woes_June_29_2007.html

    But in Victoria, at Ogden Point within a few hundred meters of James Bay homes, there are no plans to give cruise ships access to the electrical grid.

    “You can’t just plug it in and flip a switch,” says the VHA in an interview this week. “The requirement for power is very, very high and currently it’s not viable on Vancouver Island to hook that up . . . Right now B.C. Hydro really can’t provide the power and the cost of power is astronomical.”

    The VHA says the required electricity for the ships is not viable on Vancouver Island, British Columbia Hydro can"t provide it, and if they did the cost would be astronomical. This is something the Canadians are not willing to give away free of charge, as some American cities have.

    B.C. Hydro quoted a letter dated April 4, 2006, that says the crown agency was prepared to provide power for cruise ships at Ogden Point; B.C. Hydro sent the letter to the engineering firm Stantec Consulting Ltd., which was working on the project for the GVHA.

    The ships would need three dedicated circuits, the letter says, each with a capacity of 10 mega volt-amperes. It says, “Note that a supply of this magnitude requires a significant amount of work at our substation and due to lead times for purchase, installation and commissioning of substation equipment it would take a minimum of 18 months from date of payment of connection fee before service could be made available.”

    B.C. Hydro said it would cost $12.5 million to provide the power. It is unclear who would pay for this cost, but it is unlikely they will pass the cost onto the cruise industry, instead passing the cost onto rate payers, tax payers and businesses.

  • Takuan

    2 years ago

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_power

  • Takuan

    2 years ago

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_power

  • Takuan

    2 years ago

    http://www.portmetrovancouver

    http://www.portmetrovancouver.com/about/news/09-08-31/Shore_Power_for_Cruise_Ships_a_First_at_Canada_Place.aspx

  • shepsil

    2 years ago

    The Truth on Marine Emissions World Wide

    50 million cars emissions = 1 massive cargo ship's emissions.

    This article and it's links go on to show how all the worlds cars emissions equal 15 of the worlds largest ship's emissions or 50 million cars emissions = 1 massive cargo ship's emissions.

  • G West

    2 years ago

    Furthermore

    Set off against the costs - health and environmental - the meager benefits are underwhelming in the extreme.

    In fact, downtown Victoria is dying and a few cruise ship passengers aren't going to save it - more and more vacant storefronts popping up every month or so.

    Get rid of the cruise ships - if Vancouver wants them let them go with fulsome blessings...hanging on to them as a reach around to Butchart Gardens is just lame - twenty years of poor family management has nearly brought that institution down - polluting a whole neighbourhood isn't worth it.

  • Fish-counter

    2 years ago

    Are you saying that cruise ships pollute the air?

    REALLY! Well I never! Who would have thunk it.

    I am genuinely sorry to hear that the city of Victoria is not doing well. I live in Nanaimo and were are doing OK, but nothing stellar in terms of tourism. It is a fickle market, at best.

    Without flogging a dead horse, I would like to make a suggestion. We in British Columbia pride ourselves on our province as a great place to visit. We say that we want more tourists.

    So why does our government cut back on BC Parks funding and Tourism BC? No, I mean, really! Are they so hostile to visitors that they are actively deterring them?

    Why are we still pumping raw sewage into the ocean? Do we really believe that tourists are so stupid as to come to a place where they can't swim in the ocean because of the contamination?

    The place I would like to live has secondary sewage treatment as a minimum requirement. They have well-staffed campgrounds with educated guides to provide interpretive talks and walks. They have super-clean beaches you can swim from year-round, and shellfish you can eat without depuration. I would like to live in a province that spends $5 billion on good, state-of-the-art sewage treatment that has a 50-year legacy, rather than a 17-day sports event. Wink, wink?

    That place is the British Columbia of the distant past. I don't want a passport, I want a time machine.

    As for the SO2 and NOx from the cruise ship diesel engines, consider the irony of it. Victoria pumps raw sewage into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Don't complain if someone dumps a bit of acid into your airshed. It is karma. what goes around comes around.

    If you don't like a bit of crap in the air, don't put it in the water. The fish don't like it either. Now, are we getting the message yet? If not, go smack your head against a wall until you do, Mr. Campbell.

  • G West

    2 years ago

    Excellent points fish-counter

    Some of precisely the same things I mentioned in posts at the Hook on this exact same story....

  • vera gottlieb

    2 years ago

    In Victoria, cruise ships spew more toxins than assumed

    A provincial government that continues to turn a blind eye to the house boat industry turning Shuswap Lake into an open sewer...what else is to be expected? Profits before people any old time. Same old same...

  • Takuan

    2 years ago

    what!?

    you mean they don't force those houseboats to use holding tanks? Ewww!

  • Stephanie T

    2 years ago

    Here Boy....

    BC Boys silence on this thread is deafening considering all the insightful commentary he spewed forth on the previous cruise ship pollution story. What's the matter, haven't yet figured out a way to spin this one? How about this:

    "Cruise ship emissions will lead to sustainabile future and more choices for British Columbians"

    Sound about right for Campbell?

  • G West

    2 years ago

    Nice friends - the cruise ship industry

    http://www.waronwant.org/past-campaigns/sweat-ships

  • Takuan

    2 years ago

    what?

    you thought that norovirus spread by accident?

  • freebear

    2 years ago

    Victoria, Liberals spew more toxins than assumed!

    Pipe the emmissions into the legislature!

    Oh, and the sewage too!

  • Fish-counter

    2 years ago

    So lots of people feel the same way about pollution

    If anyone wonders why tourism to BC is down, ponder this:

    1. The sinking of the Queen of the North
    (Thank god charges have FINALLY been laid)

    2. The murder of Robert Dzeikanaski in VIA
    (The Poles jusrt aren't coming here much any more)

    3. The smell of sewage as you cruise down the Fraser River.
    (Last time I did it, there was a nature writer from the Audobon magazine on board. The stench was unbelievable)

    4. The southern resident orcas are the most polluted marine mammals on Earth.

    So what was your question? Oh right. Well, I am sorry for the people in Victoria who have to breathe in a bit of ship exhaust. They are SO special the smell must offend them. They care what they inhale but not in the fate of what they excrete. Their hypocrisy is sickening.

  • G West

    2 years ago

    Fish counter

    Not sure that last dig is fair...lots of us here are more than willing to pony up whatever's necessary to treat our poop - have been for years.

    You should talk to the good burghers of Oak Bay, not the folks from James Bay....You won’t find the cruise ships in close proximity to their digs. In fact, that’s one of the reasons the raw sewage outfalls were extended about 16 years ago – to keep the poop off the windows in Oak Bay every time there was a South-Easter….

    You should talk to David Anderson - for a guy with the image he's tried to cultivate on the environmental file you'd think he'd be pushing to implement a decision that, in truth, is going to have to be made and the sooner the better.

    The cruise ship thing is just another example of the absolute idiocy of the way we pretend to govern ourselves. For a few shekels from the cruise ship industry we endanger the health of our citizens and further enable an industry that, for its workers, isn't much better than slavery. And I don't blame the Poles for staying home either...
    Now, if we only had some fish left to count.

    I've experienced the wrong tide on the Fraser too – disgusting!

  • Fish-counter

    2 years ago

    Oak Bay, James Bay, who gives a damn?

    Once you get over the Malahat, it is all Victoria. You are ALL responsible for what you puke into the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and I don't want to talk to anyone, thank you. It is your effluent, not mine. YOU talk to the people in Oak Bay, mate.

    I am not particularly proud of the situation in Nanaimo, so I agitate for better processing. In 1998 the people of BC were told that the entire province would have secondary treatment as a minimum. Well, in 2010, we ain't there yet.

    Do not be surprised if your tourism trade keeps going down the toilet; the folks in Seattle are dissing Victoria every chance they get. In 1993, three national US medical conventions made a big flush of cancelling their events, because someone in Seattle had lobbied them to do so.

    Pretending the effluent does no harm because an engineer's report said so is just plain dumb. No other way to put it. It is not fair to the shellfish industry to force them out of business.

  • G West

    2 years ago

    I agree completely - and I've been talkin' mate

    Just because the local governments and certain public figures (including so-called environmentalists like David Anderson) have been foot dragging pussies on the effluent issue is no reason to poison the air the people of James Bay should have to inhale poison every time these stink pots are in town - all for the very short-lived benefit of one big tourist operator (Butchart Gardens) and a few downtown restaurateurs in a rapidly-failing downtown. Next time you come down the Malahat take a stroll down Government Street and back up Douglas and count the number of closed and closing storefronts.

    I hope the foreigners keep cancelling until the people we’ve elected to look after the public interest start serving it instead of just looking after their friends. This isn't just a problem at the federal and provincial level - it exists throughout the society.

  • Fish-counter

    2 years ago

    Please don't blame David Anderson for Victoria's sewage problems

    British Columbia is a sick society. Our provincial preoccupation is pointing fingers at other people. The biggest industry is growing marijuana, and it goes untaxed. A significant number of Vancouver RCMP are on DUI charges and they don't seem to be able to do anything right. Malodorous cruise ships are the least of our worries.

    I am sorry to hear that downtown Victoria is dying, but were you ever in Fort St. John when half their downtown businesses were boarded up? The economy is causing suffering throughout the province and decisions made in Victoria have hurt us all.

    The $5 billion just spent of the Winter Olympics would have built secondary sewage treatment plants for Victoria and Vancouver with change left over for places like Nanaimo.

    It is actually illegal in Europe and many US states to pump sewage into the environment. Secondary treatment has been the minimum standard for decades.

    Victoria probably needs five smaller plants, rather than one big one. The topography is not easy to deal with. I have no sympathy for anyone in the CRD till that gets done.

    By the way, where is Mr. Floatie these days?

  • G West

    2 years ago

    Anderson, if you haven`t been following

    Has been one of the major foot-draggers relative to actually getting on with building those plants...I`ve been all around the province - I know exactly what`s happening and I know that Vancouver and Victoria don`t give a shit - I`ve been against the Winter Olympics from the beginning...but the subject of this thread is the stink pots at Ogden Point - they`re doing harm, contributing next to nothing to the local economy and they should leave.
    Period. It`s a simple solution - the other things are going to take a lot more time.

    Which doesn`t mean I don`t agree with you and I`m not doing all I can to address those concerns.
    Cheers.

    I understand Floatie is planning a comeback...

  • Fish-counter

    2 years ago

    I hear you G. West

    It takes time to plan an extensive sewage treatment system, but we should have it in Victoria within five years. It should be possible to provide those cruise ships with power froom shore, if only to save on fuel.

    Getting them to go elsewhere will be quite a challenge, considering that they are seen as the next Great White Hope for the economy. Nanaimo and Vancouver are courting their business too. Where there's muck, there's money...

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