With conversations underway to expand cruise ship stops at Oregon Ports in addition to Astoria, Surfrider members, seafood consumers, and recreational ocean users have begun asking how can we safeguard our water quality before it's to late? Recently a piece of common sense legislation was introduced into the State Legislature by Representative Jules Bailey (HB 3123), this bill would prohibit the discharge of sewage and hazardous materials by passengers vessels with greater than 250 berths within Oregon's Territorial Sea. This bill would also require a monitoring component which would ensure compliance by the industry and create civil penalties in the event that discharge does occur. Last week, Surfrider Staff and members of the Portland Chapter provided testimony in support of this bill at the House Comittee of Environment and Water. Typically cruise ships have between 1-1.5 days of holding capacity in their tanks which means that they don't even need to discharge into Oregon waters at all, however these discharges have occurred in the past and will likely continue if preventative measures are not in place. To find out more about our goals and objectives with the campaign, click on the link below. If you would like to get involved and support this effort, please contact me at ggates@surfrider.org
Oregon_Cruise_1pager.doc
