Compelled by court order, the U.S. EPA last week announced that cruise ships and a variety of other vessels will be required to seek permits for dumping certain kinds of waste into U.S. waters, including deck runoff, ballast water, and graywater from showers, sinks, and laundry machines. However, greens say the rules would allow cruise ships to dump unlimited amounts of untreated graywater [PDF] as long as the ships are over one nautical mile offshore and traveling at over six knots.
