SEATTLE—In a letter
sent to the Washington State Department of Health (Health) on April 15, the
Federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which administers the
National Shellfish Sanitation Program (NSSP) made it clear that it was unaware
cruise ships have been discharging treated sewage in Puget Sound for several
years. The letter stated that if discharges like the ones already happening
were to occur, shellfish beds would need to be re-examined and possibly closed.
"This is potentially
a disastrous situation," said Chris Wells, Oceans Associate for the Washington
Public Interest Research Group (WashPIRG). "If the National Shellfish Sanitation
Program is unaware that cruise ships are discharging treated sewage in Puget
Sound, how can they certify that the shellfish beds located there are safe from
dangerous pollution like bacteria and viruses?"
The issue surfaced earlier
this week as House Bill 1415, a bill setting standards for the treatment and
sampling of cruise ship wastes, approached the final stages of the legislative
process. In a letter, Joseph R. Baca, Director of Compliance for the Center
for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition at HHS in Washington, D.C., expressed
concerns about the bill. The letter stated that H.B. 1415 "proposes that
discharges from cruise ships be permitted within Puget Sound…" and
suggested that if such discharges were permitted, Puget Sound shellfish growing
waters would "need to be reclassified from approved to prohibited."
However, cruise ships have been discharging treated waste in Puget Sound with
as much or less treatment than is required by the bill for several years; HB
1415 would not have allowed new discharges, but would have made a strict treatment
regimen legally binding. But HSS and the NSSP apparently didn't know discharges
were happening.
HB 1415 was never brought
to the Senator floor for a vote, and therefore did not pass.
It is not clear whether
Health knew about the ongoing discharges. Since the Department of Ecology (Ecology)
signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Northwest Cruise Line Association
in April 2004 that allowed cruise ship discharges of highly-treated sewage and
other wastewater in Puget Sound, Health should have received that information
from Ecology. But regardless of whether or not Health knew about them, the discharges
should have been included in the FDA's annual audit of the Washington Shellfish
Sanitation Program, which Health manages.
Either way, it is likely
that the NSSP will have to reassess and possibly close shellfish beds in Puget
Sound. And most concerning of all, people may have eaten shellfish that were
not adequately assessed as to whether or not they were safe to eat.
"NSSP must reassess
the safety of Puget Sound shellfish beds immediately to ensure that they are
not a threat to public health," said Wells. "In addition, we need
to find out why the Departments of Ecology and Health did not provide NSSP the
information it needed to accurately assess whether or not Puget Sound shellfish
were safe to eat."
