Cruise Ships -- Draft Ch. 532, Large Commercial Passenger Vessels

Where did the standards come from?

The standards in the proposed rule are drawn from federal regulatory requirements. The proposed rule is adopted pursuant to Maine's Waste Discharge Law. The proposed rule pulls together and organizes federal standards scattered among many different provisions of federal regulations into one, short Maine chapter applicable to large commercial passenger vessels.

The draft chapter makes a small number of minor language changes necessary to incorporate these standards into Maine rules, and apply them to vessels in Maine coastal waters. These changes are described in a SIDE BY SIDE document (pdf file) comparing the draft rule and federal standards.

More information about, and links to, the texts of the underlying federal standards.

PL 2003, Ch. 650 explicitely provided that "It is the intent of the Legislature that the regulation of graywater and graywater and blackwater mixture discharges from large commercial passenger vessels that are equipped with wastewater treatment systems that require continuous discharge be consistent with the regulation of similar vessels in Alaska".