Reduce maritime air pollution

Congress last week sent the president a bill to authorize the United States to join an international treaty for reducing air pollution created by ocean-going ships. This is a welcome step with important local implications. It will allow the United States to press for better pollution standards for international shipping that will benefit Charleston's air quality.

Large vessels, mostly operating under foreign flags, now account for 13 percent of the nation's nitrogen oxide, 17 percent of lung-damaging soot and half of sulfur oxide emissions, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Worldwide emissions by ships are blamed for 60,000 deaths annually, according to a report last year by the scientific journal Environmental Science & Technology.

That is only a fraction of the million-plus deaths worldwide each year from pollution-induced respiratory diseases, but it is a significant one. Soot has also been implicated in the melting of glaciers and the Arctic ice pack because it blackens snow and ice and makes them more heat-retentive, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

The Maritime Pollution Prevention Act passed by Congress will allow the United States to join an international effort, known as MARPOL, to reduce ship emissions of such harmful pollutants. The S.C. State Ports Authority supports the treaty.

The Bush administration already plans to advance stronger anti-ship pollution proposals at the International Maritime Organization's October meeting. The EPA has warned that if such proposals are not adopted, it will impose its own rules on ships sailing in American waters and docking at American ports.

Bunker fuel used in ship propulsion is 1,800 times dirtier than truck fuel, and a single ship puts out as much air pollution as 350,000 cars, according to calculations by the advocacy group Friends of the Earth.

MARPOL currently requires treaty members to reduce sulfur emissions from their ships by 22 percent by 2012, with a further 86 percent reduction by 2020. Even then, however, the sulfur content of bunker fuel will be far greater than the current U.S. standard for trucks. There is long way to go before ships in Charleston harbor use fuel as clean as trucks.

The truck standard is what the Coastal Conservation League seeks for ships calling at Charleston, a position common among major conservation organizations concerned with coastal air pollution from ships. It doesn't want to wait for international action.

But a major national conservation group, the Environmental Defense Fund, has hailed the new law because it gives the United States a voice in setting international maritime pollutions standards. About 90 percent of the ships that dock at U.S. ports are of foreign registry, according to the EDF.

"This action will help our country secure protective international standards for large ocean-going ships," said Janea Scott, a senior EDF attorney.

The treaty could ultimately lead to "cleaner, healthier air for the millions of Americans harmed by toxic air pollution from U.S. and foreign-flagged ships," she said. That is a worthy goal.