New Rules

 On June 23 it was announced that Canada will be clamping down on cruise ship waste disposal practices. There will be an outright ban on discharging sewage and grey water within 3 nautical miles of the coast and tightened regs in dumping between 3 and 12 nautical miles. Fines of up to $250,000 can be levied for violations in the three mile zone.

Major concerns were raised on the west coast with the large number of ships off British Columbia going to and coming from Alaska, but the rules will apply to this coast too. Regrettably it is not clear how this will effect a large part of the St.Lawrence River that is much more than six miles wide, and almost the entire Gulf of St.Lawrence.

Part of the problem with enforcement is that Canada's "border" is not 200 miles out to sea, despite the well known 200 mile limit. Ancient 3 mile and 12 mile limit sovereignty laws still govern much of the world's waters.  The seas (and sea bottom) within 12 miles of shore is considered to be national territory (it used to be 3 miles.) Even though countries exercise economic and scientific controls out to 200 miles, they cannot prevent passage of ships in the zone as they can within the 12 mile limit. A lot of what happens at sea is governed by international agreement and the 200 mile zone was agreed upon by most nations, but is not agreed by all and is difficult to police for a country the size of Canada.

Not surprisingly environmentalists want stricter laws for Canada, (there are stricter regs in the Arctic for example) but it seems unlikely that anything can be done about the 200 mile zone without decades of negotiation and international treaties.

As for Halifax, every cruise ship is met by the handsome pair of tug Dominion Rumbler and the Honey Barge. Further  explanation of the purpose of the tank barge seems unecessary (and impossible to write about without tasteless puns and double entrendres.)

Dominion Diving operates the pair from their base in Dartmouth Cove. The tug is one of a pair built by Damen in the Netherlands and imported to Canada in 2020. Dominion Rumbler and Dominion Enforcer are 600 bhp, twin screw vessels. The barge is a former navy lighter / water tanker of the YC class.

Other refuse and recyclables are also removed by dry cargo barge for disposal ashore. By law, international garbage from ships and aircraft is incinerated.

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