Call for Cleaner Fuel
Ditching dirty fuel a solution to scrubber pollution in Alaska
CLEAR BENEFITS OF CLEANER FUEL USE IN ALASKA WATERS
Alaska is known for its pristine waters, beautiful to behold and home to prized fish, majestic whales, playful marine mammals and so much more. These waters have long provided for harvesters of seafood and coastal plant life and today enable industries like fishing, mariculture, tourism and recreation. Harvesters, commercial fishermen, tourism operators and all who live, visit and recreate in the region rely on these waters being clean. The bad news is heavy fuel oil burned in Alaska waters creates pollution that puts it all at risk. The good news is we can protect it all by using of cleaner fuel.
THE DIRT ON DIRTY FUEL
WHAT IS HEAVY FUEL OIL?
Heavy Fuel Oil is a dirty, tarry, viscous leftover product of refining that has long been disposed of in ship fuel. It’s used because it’s cheap and benefits corporate bottom lines; it’s not needed for the safe operation of ships — they’re equipped to burn cleaner fuel and already do in some circumstances. Heavy Fuel Oil is high in sulfur and can only be used with an exhaust gas scrubber to comply with international sulfur limits.
A WHOLE LOT OF PROBLEMS AND SULFUR IS JUST ONE
Even with the use of scrubbers, ships burning HFOs release considerably more particulate matter, nitrous oxides, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and black carbon into the air compared with cleaner fuels. Black carbon is one of the primary drivers of Arctic warming and increases 81% when using HFO with scrubbers.
IT’S A WASH: (SLIGHTLY) CLEANER AIR AT THE EXPENSE OF CLEAN WATER
HFO vessels using scrubbers discharge wastewater that contains heavy metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, nitrites and nitrates, sulfates, and particulate matter pollutants.
A FOOD CHAIN REACTION
Water pollution discharges from scrubber systems can persist within the marine environment for decades. Scrubber wastewater, even at extremely low concentrations, has been shown to disrupt biological processes and threaten the health and wellbeing of Alaska’s marine ecosystem, on which Alaskans rely for food, cultural, and economic security.
WHAT ABOUT YOU, A HUMAN?
Alaskans are exposed through activities in our nearshore waters and consumption of seafood in which HFO generated pollutants bioaccumulate. Exposure to air pollutants like black carbon is linked to a number of serious health risks including cancer.
SPILL RISK
Large cruise ships carry millions of gallons of HFO through our waters each year. When spilled, HFO’s density allows it to sink and resurface, prolonging environmental impacts and making it much more expensive and difficult to clean.
SIGN THE PETITION
BUSINESS SIGN-ON
RESOLUTIONS
Your Tribal or municipal government can adopt a resolution in support of cleaner fuel policies.
THE WORKAROUND FOR BURNING DIRTY FUEL
Exhaust gas scrubbers allow ships to keep burning cheaper, high-sulfur, heavy fuel oil instead of cleaner burning distillate fuel. To satisfy international sulfur limits they ‘scrub’ the exhaust, but those pollutants have to go somewhere.
WHAT GOES IN MUST COME OUT
Most scrubbers are open-loop and spray large volumes of clean seawater through the highly acidic exhaust to ‘wash’ the sulfur out, discharging polluted water.
ONE SHIP DISCHARGES MILLIONS OF GALLONS DAILY
Open loop scrubbers continuously discharge this polluted wastewater into the sea at estimated volumes ranging from 6.3 to 8.7 million gallons per day — for a medium sized ship.
A TROUBLESOME TREND
Scrubbers have been installed on almost all large cruise ships that visit Alaska, allowing them to burn heavy fuel oil.
POLLUTION SOLUTION
SO SIMPLE BUT NOT SO EASY
There’s a simple solution — ships can burn cleaner fuel to cut both air and water pollution — but this solution is not likely to be employed voluntarily because cleaner fuel comes with higher costs. It is possible, though — Alaska’s smaller cruise ships burn cleaner distillate fuel.
A CALL FOR CLEANER FUEL
Alaska can and should join the roughly 50 countries, regions and ports that have taken action to end this pollution. What that action looks like in Alaska is a requirement for cleaner fuel use in Alaska waters.
- Sign our Cleaner Fuels petition!
- Contact us for information about our business sign-on letter and Tribal or municipal cleaner fuel resolutions at cleanwater@seacc.org
- If you see suspicious discharges, report it to DEC at 907-465-5278 or DEC.WQ.Cruise@alaska.gov. Please let us know if you do.