Carnival Being Sued By South Carolina Group

[Chief Cruiser]

Carnival is being sued by a couple of South Carolina groups wanting the cruise line to comply with state regulations regarding, for starters, emisson controls. As a South Carolinian and frequent Carnival cruiser, I was thrilled to see a ship homeported in SC. It definitely cut my costs of either driving or flying to the Florida homeports. The benefits versus the risks/downsides are debatable depending on which side of the street you stand on, but are not the focus of this thread. You can decide that on your own after reading the article and seeing the footage from a local TV station.

 

I would hope there is room for compromise and would have rather seen this approach instead of the lawsuit. People have a right to sue and people have a right to defend. I just hope the end result doesn't drive Carnival away or drive up the cost of cruises out of Charlietown due to imposed regulations. Let's hope everyone is reasonable around the table on this one.

 

See this link for the story:

 

http://www.cruiselawnews.com/2011/06/articles/pollution-1/charleston-groups-to-sue-carnival-cruise-lines/index.html

[jhale]

If they push too hard do you think Carnival will just say "phooey" and pull out of SC?

 

If so not only will the cruisers living in that area be upset, but jobs would be lost as well for the people working in the ports.

[CorvetteLady]

Well that is a very biased article, giving only one side of the story, I wonder how much of it is correct. I am sure that Carnival can move that ship to many places that would be happy to have them. Mobile would take them back with no hesitation at all.

 

I wonder why Carnival would wait until they are 12 miles out to dump waste? I have no idea how often they do that, sounds gross. I guess I have never really given much thought to how they deal with all the waste and trash created on a cruise.

 

I don't really see Carnival doing something that will lower their profits. They left Mobile because they could make more money elsewhere, I think they would do the same to Charleston.

[comxkid]

Some excellent commentary from your fellow South Carolinians here:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1423240

[sakapfet]

Those P.C. liberals, as Sarah Palin said recently :"I love that smell of the emissions!" :D

[scchasgal]

Good luck with that lawsuit. This is a container port and one of the largest on the east coast. Container ship are in and out of here multiple times per day. They have the same if not worse emissions.

 

Are they going to sue all the container ship companies and put the Port of Charleston out of business???

[richkinkade]

Although maritime regulations (Marpol) http://www.marinetalk.com/articles-marine-companies/art/Ship-Sewage-Regulations-IMO001104738IN.html allow disposal of waste, including sewage, at sea, more than 12 miles offshore, Carnival doesn't do it.

 

"Although international law allows disposal of some items at sea , Carnival chooses to recycle, incinerate or offload all waste materials from its ships for disposal on land. These include plastic, glass, rags, metal, fluorescent lamps, batteries and medical waste.

Under Carnival’s wide-ranging waste-management guidelines, solid waste is processed and incinerated on board whenever possible. Otherwise, it is sent to an approved shoreside facility for treatment, recycling or disposal. Materials to be recycled are compacted, crushed or baled, and stored on board until they can be offloaded to an approved vendor for disposal."

 

http://carnivalpressroom.wordpress.com/2009/07/08/carnival-cruise-lines-committed-to-minimizing-its-environmental-footprint/

[dbenlee]

The only thing Carnival disposes of at sea, that is not incinerated, is the leftover food. It is ground up and put into the water while in international waters. Learned this when I took the Behind the Fun tour last November while on the Conquest out of Galveston. Everything else is recycled, off loaded at port or incinerated if possible.