Last week the City and Borough of Juneau Assembly held a joint work session with members of the Cruise Lines International Association of Alaska (CLIAA) and major cruise lines calling on Juneau.
This meeting was well timed as many Juneau residents were on edge after the Norwegian Bliss rushed down the channel on April 14th, an unusually large smokestack signaling the entrance of the first ship of the 2025 season. One resident, who noted his initial excitement to welcome the visitors, posted a letter to social media reading: “This is an ignominious way to begin the 2025 cruise ship season.”
According to a social media post, the Bliss was responding to a medical emergency on board, rendering this life-or-death entrance as a one-off, necessary response. However, if residents were concerned with the smokestack, let this be a good reminder of a different, invisible type of cruise ship pollution that is threatening marine ecosystem health on a consistent and massive scale: scrubber wash water, a highly acidic, heavy-metal-rich cocktail of toxic exhaust fumes, buffer solution, and ocean water.
The contents of the wash water–polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), particulate matter, nitrates and heavy metals like nickel, lead and mercury — individually correspond to higher rates of intestinal cancers in belugas, immunosuppression in marine mammals, eutrophication, and disruptions to zooplankton at the base of the food chain. In humans, PAHs have been linked to endocrine disruption, disrupted cognitive development and cancer.
In the face of 2015 air regulations on marine fuels aimed at capping sulfur emissions, cruise ships had two options: burn cleaner fuel or install exhaust scrubbers to remove sulfur from their smokestacks. At large, the cruise industry opted for the second option: according to the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICTT), from 2015 to 2025 the number of all ships, not just limited to cruise ships, outfitted and projected to be outfitted with scrubbers globally jumped from 242 to 7400. These ships continue to use heavy fuel oil (HFO) that is dirtier and cheaper compared to marine gas oil (MGO), a cleaner fuel that doesn’t require a scrubber.
This has had bleak results for our air and water quality. Though the scrubbers successfully remove sulfur dioxide from the air (by putting it into the water), a study from the ICCT shows that ships burning HFO with scrubbers are emitting around 70% more particulate matter, over 80% times more black carbon, and more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere compared to those using MGO without scrubbers.
These scrubbers take visible air pollution, similar to that seen by the Bliss a few weeks ago, and simply hide it in the ocean. Unlike the Bliss smoke stack that scarred the sky down Gastineau Channel, this discharge is neither necessary nor used only in extreme circumstances. In fact, 80% of ships with scrubbers globally utilize an open-loop system that continuously discharges this wash water into the ocean. Closed-loop systems, where wash water is disposed of on land, make up less than 2% of the global fleet, and hybrid systems, which can function as open- or closed-loop, make up the rest.
On a typical week-long trip, it’s estimated that an Alaskan cruise ship using an open-loop scrubber discharges an average of 200 million liters of wash water. That’s about half the volume of the Mendenhall Lake of toxins entering the ocean from just a single ship each week.
The scrubbers mix exhaust fumes with a buffer solution (often ocean water) to “scrub” them of sulfur. Up to 100,000 times more acidic than surrounding water, this wash water–now containing bad agents and unburned oils–is then dumped into the ocean. This threatens the long-term health of the ecosystems that Juneau depends on for the city’s $700 million (ironically) cruise ship industry, $65 million commercial fishing industry, burgeoning regenerative mariculture industry, and our priceless public health and lifestyle dependent on the long-term stability of our marine ecosystems.
At the request of Assemblymember Woll who was absent, Mayor Beth Weldon asked the cruise representatives to comment on the development of new fuels and the actions being taken on scrubbers.
Robert Morgenstern of Carnival Corporation–who the EPA found in 2016 had violated their vessel permit by discharging wash water with pH levels beyond allowable limits hundreds of times while in Alaska–failed to comment on the corporation’s use of scrubbers. Instead, he responded to what he called a “fascinating challenge” by citing difficulties in scaling biofuels and supply chain issues around green, methanol-based fuels.
Uncertainty around supply of clean fuel has continued to be an easy fall back for the industry. However, a report by Pacific Environment notes that given lead time and preparation, the fuel industry can adjust and has proven capable in the wake of adapting to the IMO 2020 regulations. Since most ships recoup the cost of scrubbers within five years, it follows that most cruise lines wouldn’t face a significant financial loss on capital in the face of a scrubber regulations.
Representatives from Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Line spoke briefly about their respective use of closed-loop and hybrid scrubbers, mainly greenwashing business practices through mentions of the green corridor and omitting relevancies.
Russell Benford of Royal Caribbean Group cited the use of closed-loop scrubbers that don’t discharge in Juneau. While a better option than open or hybrid scrubbers, closed-loop scrubbers are still leagues worse on air pollution emissions compared to MGOs, and they’re known to leak wash water with a concentration of chemicals 17 times higher than what’s already known to be toxic to zooplankton.
“We make sure that about two hours, for our larger ships, before we enter Juneau we have turned off our scrubbers, and we’re starting to run on marine gas oil,” said Sandra Weir of Norwegian Cruise Line. “Only when we leave Juneau completely out of the channel, that’s when we may or may not turn it back on.”
Unfortunately, to say dumping outside of the channel is a solution is smoke and mirrors. The wash water will still impact the migrating fish, sea birds, and marine mammals that live and travel throughout the Inside Passage into these waters. Dissolution is not of much comfort: concentrations of wash water as low as .001% have been shown to affect multiple species’ larvae development.
The use of MGO in the channel at all signals the mental gymnastics the corporation performs to rationalize and then seek acclaim for dumping two hours outside of Juneau. Further, it signals the Alaska fleet’s ability to access, utilize, and ultimately transition to cleaner fuels.
Of note is MSC: the new kid on the block to Alaska’s waters. In 2023, the MSC Euribia completed the industry’s first net-zero gas emissions voyage using bio-LNG during a 4-day voyage from Saint-Nazaire to Copenhagen. Further, they’re working with their engine manufacturer to create a new engine that forgoes traditional combustion to only run on MGO and LNG.
To contextualize their business practices, Royal Caribbean received a D- on the 2024 Friends of the Earth Cruise Ship Report Card, Norwegian and MSC Cruises received a D+, and Carnival an F.
Despite what was said to Juneau’s Assembly last week, no amount of smoke in the air should be able to distract from the monumental amounts of pollution these ships are dumping into the same marine ecosystems that the longevity of their industry relies on.
Worldwide, more than 45 countries have regulated the use of scrubbers–with over 85 of these regulations taking form as a ban. Most of these regulations are implemented at the port level, which emphasizes the role the City and Borough of Juneau has to play in this game. Vancouver Fraser Port Authority, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Florida, and Washington all have restrictions or bans in place. If Juneau prides itself on clean water, wild fish stocks, and healthy communities, it’s time to join them.
Rachel Levy is a Juneau-based photojournalist whose work culminates at the intersections of environmental justice, arts and culture, and sustainable tourism. A 2022 graduate of Harvard University's Environmental Policy program, she is also the director of the award-winning documentary "Hidden in Plain Sight" that exposes the labor exploitation and colonial framework burdening Tanzania's safari industry.
