PORT OF SEATTLE 
MEMORANDUM 
COMMISSION AGENDA  POLICY AND STAFF BRIEFING 
Item No.        6c 
Date of Meeting   January 6, 2009
DATE:   December 19, 2008
TO:     Tay Yoshitani, Chief Executive Officer
FROM:   Stephanie Jones Stebbins, Senior Manager, Seaport Environmental Programs
Peter K. Ressler, Seaport Environmental Programs Compliance Manager
SUBJECT: Update on Cruise Vessel Biomass Study and Phase 1 Draft Report

STATUS OF THE CRUISE VESSEL BIOMASS STUDY 

The purpose of this briefing is to update the Commission on the status of the Cruise Vessel
Biomass Study and the Phase 1 Draft Report.
Staff previously briefed the Commission on June 10, 2008. At that time, the next step was
to move ahead with Phase I of the Cruise Biomass Study, assessing the feasibility of
offloading biomass at Cruise facilities. Phase-2 of the Study will evaluate the
environmental impacts of implementing the alternatives identified in Phase 1.
The Phase 1 Study has already undergone some public review. A draft study was completed
by our consulting team (KPFF Engineering, Glosten Associates and AECOM). This draft
study was reviewed by a stakeholder group, including the Northwest Cruise Ship
Association (NWCA), individual member Cruise Lines, the Department of Ecology, (DOE)
and several environmental interest groups including Friends of the Earth, People for Puget
Sound and the Surfrider Alliance. Comments from the stakeholder group were received at a
meeting held on December 15, 2008. These comments are being incorporated into a new
draft that will be released at the time of this Commission briefing. A 30 day public review
period will commence following this briefing.
This Phase 1 Draft Report summarizes the current state of knowledge through a review of
existing reports and data. The specific reports reviewed include DOE reports on past sampling
conducted on Puget Sound cruise vessels, as well as US EPA reports on cruise vessel on-board
treatment systems.
In addition, treatment vendors and cruise ship operators were surveyed to determine how waste
was being treated and handled by the vessels. A questionnaire was sent to cruise line customers
to gather specific information about types of treatment systems employed, disposal practices, and

COMMISSION AGENDA 
T. Yoshitani, Chief Executive Officer
December 19, 2008
Page 2 of 2

vessel information including storage capacity specific to the individual vessels. The cruise
vessel operators were also asked if their ship was equipped with a means of transferring biomass
ashore, and if not, whether it was feasible to retrofit the ship to enable biomass transfer.
Finally, the Phase 1 report also contains an initial assessment of the impacts to onboard and
dock-side infrastructure and terminal operations of performing the alternative biomass offloading
methods. This assessment is based on the professional experience of Port staff, the
consultant team and their collective knowledge of cruise facilities at Pier 66 and Pier 91 and the
cruise vessel system infrastructure.