Law would crack down on cruise ships
pensacolanewsjournal.com
With heated debate and a divided vote, another House committee has approved legislation intended to stop Florida's cruises-to-nowhere from leaving their sewage at sea.
The House Policy and Budget Committee on Wednesday approved Rep. Bob Allen's bill to require the state's 11 gambling ships to pay sewage disposal fees -- even if they continue to dump in international waters.
It's the best Florida can do to convince the industry to change its toilet habits, Allen contends.
"Forty-six million gallons of pulverized, sprayed-with-chlorine (waste) is not what we want off our shores," the Merritt Island Republican argued.
The bill's next stop is the House floor.
The day cruise industry fiercely opposes the legislation, and has managed for three years to kill it. This year, it has succeeded in watering down the bill in the Senate, which requires instead a study of what day cruise ships do or do not discharge.
Former Speaker Ralph Haben, lobbying for the day-cruise industry, contends that because Florida can't regulate what happens at sea, cruise ships won't pay to haul their waste to shore and pump it off.
"This industry is not trying to be recalcitrant," Haben said, citing its efforts several years ago to work with Rep. Mitch Needelman on an agreement to dispose of the sewage eight miles off shore.
"It is not fair to pick us out this way," he said.
