Bluewater Network Clean Vessels Campaign is designed to substantially reduce air and water pollution, set stringent standards to prevent increasing pollution as vessel transport expands, and minimize damage to marine life caused by existing and proposed large vessels, cruise ships, and ferries in the U.S. Our goals are to raise awareness about the damage caused by large vessels, capitalize on recent victories to win new pollution prevention standards, and ensure that government agencies propose the most environmentally friendly plans possible. Bluewater Network's victories on the West Coast will result in models and standards that are likely to lead the way for development of environmentally-friendly large and medium vessel transport systems throughout the U.S. and abroad.

Our original project objectives were to:
a) Contribute to the development of ferry boat design criteria
b) Contribute to the development of ferry terminal design criteria
c) Participate in the inter-agency Cruise ship Environmental Task Force
d) Reduce environmental impacts from cruise ships and large commercial vessels

Since then, Bluewater Network has won the following victories:

• Convinced the San Francisco Water Transit Authority to include a low-emissions ferry standard for its new fleet that is 85% cleaner than will be required by law in 2007, and 10 times cleaner than today's ferries, setting a new national standard for ferry emissions
• Convinced the WTA to mandate the low-emissions standard in its authorizing legislation and to require that at least one route is operated on a biodiesel blend (B20). Ensured that environmental standards were successfully maintained in the final authorizing legislation and funding process.
• Convinced the San Francisco Bay Area Water Transit Authority to establish an oversight panel to develop a $2.5 million fuel cell ferry demonstration project. (Bluewater helped choose panel members and was instrumental in acquiring funding for this project.)
• Ensured that the ferry plan includes sonar fish finders to be installed on every boat to protect whales and that ferries will be designed with low-wake hulls, so that their wakes won't erode shoreline or flood bird nests, and that routes will steer clear of harbor seal colonies.
• Ferry terminal siting and plans have also been much improved by Bluewater Network advocacy, including the removal of environmentally sensitive Port Sonoma from the list of proposed terminal sites
• Developed data on ferry air pollution by commissioning a report on ferry pollution in New York harbor, on the eve of massive ferry expansion there. The report provides data on the extremely high pollution caused by today's ferries and illustrates the fact that they are much more polluting than land-side transit modes, debunking the myth that ferry transit expansion (other than that now planned for San Francisco) provides cleaner transit alternatives.

Our cruise ship victories include:

• Won a lawsuit against Carnival Cruise Lines requiring that vessels stop dumping invasive species-laden ballast water into California waters and an out-of-court settlement with three other lines, which agreed to stop violating state law and to fund a $50,000 study on ballast water treatment.
• Bluewater Network staged a major press conference and rally at the San Francisco Cruise Ship terminal in collaboration with local groups and marine unions to draw attention to cruise ship pollution and announce a new Clean Bay Ordinance which was passed by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.
• Bluewater began an initiative to ban cruise ships from discharging any pollutant in national marine sanctuaries.
• Bluewater provided expertise to legislators considering two new bills to prevent dumping of wastewater and hazardous materials (photochemicals, dry cleaning chemicals, sewage sludge) within 3 miles of California's shoreline. These bills passed in 2003.
• Convinced the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to hold back $29 million in projected revenues from a proposed new cruise ship terminal until an air emissions reduction plan for cruise ships is developed by the Port of San Francisco. Bluewater Network sits on new Air and Water Quality Working Groups set up by the Port.
• Successfully appealed the proposed new San Francisco Cruise Ship Terminal's Environmental Impact Report and prevented discharge of wastewater or ballast water from cruise ships into San Francisco Bay.
• Provided the Port Commission with detailed recommendations for stronger environmental protections in the cruise terminal lease and co-sponsored a briefing of the Board of Supervisors on cruise ship pollution that featured cruise ship activists from Alaska, Maine, Washington DC, and Seattle, Washington.
• Maintain pressure on the California Cruise Ship Task Force (developed at Bluewater's behest in 1999) to recommend strong environmental standards, and to issue its report on time in order to educate decision makers and the public about the importance of strong environmental protection standards to protect California's coastline from increasing environmental traffic.

The complete report and addendum are the following:

Commute Emissions in New York Harbor, 2003 (1 page .pdf file)

New York Ferry Emissions -- 2003 (2 page .pdf file)

Air Pollution from Passenger Ferries in New York Harbor - July 2003 (25 page .pdf file)

The Cruise Industry and Environmental History and Practice: Is a Memorandum of Understanding Effective for Protecting the Enviroment? (27 page .pdf file)

A Strategy to Improve Public Transit with an Environmentally Friendly Ferry System; Final Implementation and Operations Plan. July 2003 (70 page .pdf file)
San Francisco Bay Area Water Transit Authority.

Cruise Ship Pollution - Air and Water (23 page power point file)