In 2021, WCEL Association and Stand.earth released Regulating the West Coast Cruise Industry: Canada at the Low Water Mark, a report on Canada’s regulation of the discharge of pollution from the Pacific Coast cruise ship industry. The report found significant gaps in Canada’s regulations and highlighted, in particular, Canada’s failure to regulate the dumping of scrubber washwater from cruise ships, which was a growing issue on the Pacific coast.
Scrubber washwater refers to the discharge from exhaust gas cleaning systems, or “scrubbers,” which remove sulphur oxides from ship exhaust and mix them with seawater before releasing them into the ocean.
This submission to the federal government outlines concerns over the impacts of scrubber washwater, gaps in the existing regulatory framework, and our recommendation for a ban on scrubber discharges.