Cruise ship pollution criticised as Victoria considers shore power alternatives

As is the case with a growing number of ports, new infrastructure being built at Ogden Point will aim to reduce air pollution from docked ships by allowing them to connect to the local power grid.

As the owner and operator of several major assets along the capital’s waterfront, the Greater Victoria Harbour Authority (GVHA) envisioned the possibility of bringing shore power to several piers at the Ogden Point deepwater terminal, allowing cruise ships to turn off their engines while drawing clean electricity from the port.

But the increased demand for shore-based power has led to rising costs for producing and delivering the technology. The trend comes as a range of other electrification options – such as methanol-powered charging stations and barge-based battery systems – have recently entered the commercial market, prompting port authorities to reconsider whether there is a more cost-effective option that could offer similar greenhouse gas reductions.

“We felt it was really important to do that extra work to make sure we were making smart decisions for the long term,” Robert Lewis-Manning, CEO of GVHA, said in an interview.

While some alternatives offer cost savings, several are also portable systems. Having mobile options can be more efficient than having shore power at multiple piers, because Ogden’s three deep-water moorings aren’t always full, Lewis-Manning said. Tuesday (July 23) provided an example, as two cruise ships were due to arrive in Victoria but their docking times didn’t match.

The CEO added that cruise ships will transition to zero-emission fuels in the next 20 to 30 years, so the port authority wants to ensure that installing shore power will not make it an obsolete technology.

The shore power project received $9 million in funding from the province and was expected to be up and running by 2027. Lewis-Manning said considering other options means ships will likely have to wait an extra year before they can start using power at Ogden Point.

“We think it’s worth delaying the deadline a bit to see if there’s a better solution,” he said, adding that the cost savings would benefit other GVHA projects, such as maintenance of the lower Inner Harbor causeway.

While the ability to turn off their engines and plug into clean electricity could help cruise ships reduce the pollution they emit while at sea, environmentalists say lax regulations continue to negatively impact British Columbia’s coastal areas.

After the Canadian government introduced new mitigation measures last year, a recent Stand.earth report criticized federal authorities for extending the temporary order without introducing additional requirements.

The 2023 regulation introduced restrictions – with a few exceptions – on where cruise ships can discharge sewage and grey water, but did not address facilities that allow heavy fuel oil to continue to be used despite stricter international rules.

“It allows for the use of cheap, dirty fossil fuel that would otherwise be banned due to air pollution regulations,” Anna Barford, a shipping campaigner for Stand.earth in Canada, said in an interview.

The International Maritime Organization in 2020 restricted the amount of sulfur allowed in marine fuels to reduce particulate matter and other emissions. To meet these requirements, ships can use systems commonly known as scrubbers, which use seawater to scrub exhaust gases before some of the pollutants are separated from the “washwater” that is then discharged into the ocean.

That discharged washwater affects coastal communities and marine species, but Canada lags behind other countries that have banned scrubbers or are forcing cruise ships to invest in cleaner fuels to comply with new emissions regulations, Barford said. She also points to a paper prepared by Environment and Climate Change Canada in April of this year that said “the use of scrubbers in Canadian waters has increased dramatically since 2019.”

The document found that the use of scrubbers in Canadian waters was relatively rare before 2018, but that ships equipped with them discharged more than 88 million tonnes of wash water on Canada’s Pacific coast in 2022. That figure was double the figure in 2019. The number of ships equipped with scrubbers off the coast of British Columbia increased from 125 to 466 over those three years, with cruise ships the most significant users.

“This is a waste stream that is incredibly toxic and a problem that is growing rapidly. We need to act before we allow fossil fuel waste to cause lasting damage to our marine ecosystems,” Barford said.

Stand.earth hopes Transport Canada will ban scrubbers and further regulate sewage and grey water from cruise ships, preventing discharges into protected areas and eliminating current exemptions that allow discharges closer to shore.

Transport Canada received several questions last week. The agency said it was working on a response but had not yet provided one. Cruise Lines International Association did not respond to questions about how the industry pollutes British Columbia waters.

Barford added that the regulations should be coupled with better monitoring and enforcement, as the cruise industry is used to operating out of sight. She also fears that ships using shore power will use those emissions savings to burn more fuel when they are back in open water. That could cause ships to sail faster, which could increase the risk of whale strikes, the campaigner said.

The province recently announced $3 billion over the next decade for power infrastructure on Vancouver Island. In preparation for the port power option, BC Hydro said the upgrades, which will run between Ogden Point and the Victoria substation, are still in the design phase.

“We want to electrify as much of the province as possible to make sure we can provide a clean and reliable source of energy that is less reliant on fossil fuels,” said BC Hydro spokesman Ted Olynyk.

With a goal of making sustainability a guiding principle for Victoria’s busy waterways, Lewis-Manning said the GVHA would also work to restore the ecology of the port, which would include improving local water and air quality and supporting the social and cultural values ​​of the port.