Is this what you want for communities living in the Clarence River Estuary, Mr. Mayor?

Clarence Valley Mayor Jim Simmons has been quoted in the mainstream media as saying about NSW Berejiklian Coalition Government plans for the environmentally sensitive and flood-prone Clarence River Estuary and Port of Yamba:

“Oh yeh, we’d give it  a go at Grafton.  We’ve got the best beaches up here and I think Coffs Harbour has had its fair share of things and it’s time other places got a go. There’s plenty of things to see, we have the best beaches in the state, if not Australia”.

I’m not quite sure if the mayor has quite thought where his enthusiasm might lead…………….

This is the 50,000 ton, 848 passenger capacity, small cruise ship Crystal Symphony belonging to Chrystal Cruises a US-based business which operates in Africa, Caribbean, Europe, Hawaii, Mediterranean, South America, South Pacific, Asia, Arctic, Australia, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, Southeast Asia, U.S. East Coast, U.S. West Coast, Alaska, Antarctic, India, and the Middle East.

Crystal Symphony currently docks in Sydney.

In 2016 Friends of the Earth (FOE) gave this ship a big fat F when it came to “sewerage treatment”, “air pollution” and overall environmental values.

Cruise ships such as this use their auxiliary diesel motors to supply lighting, air conditioning, heating etc. when they are moored and in the case of Chrystal Symphony that means diesel fumes allegedly the equivalent of 40 lorries a day travelling on Yamba or Iluka streets, according to people with some experience of UK cruise ports.

That’s going to make the on-river experience delightful for other visitors and local residents alike – out in the tinnie wetting a line as they drift through a cloud of diesel fumes spread by the breeze instead of breathing in the clean tang of saltwater.

In May 2016 it was reported that P&O were fined $15,000 by the NSW Environment Protection Authority when one of its cruise ships exceeded diesel emissions limits.

Silver Sea Cruise’s 28,258 ton, 382 passenger capacity, small cruise ship Silver Whisper which also docks in Sydney received exactly the same FOE report card F, along with its 5,218 ton, 116 passenger sister ship Silver Discoverer which docks at Cairns.

According to an undercover investigation by UK Channel Four Dispatches program aired in June 2017 the air quality on one P&O cruise ship deck was worse than world's most polluted cities.

As for waste – cruise ships can generate anything up to about 57 litres of hazardous chemical waste every day as well as producing sewage, graywater and solid waste associated with accommodation, meals and other on-board activities.

Just one accidental discharge of this waste in the tidal estuary would be hard to contain, could contaminate shorelines and possibly lead to localised fish kills .

Such an incident would quickly affect tourists’ perceptions of Yamba and Iluka as being ‘clean and green’.

That such cruise ship accidents happen, as well as deliberate waste dumping, is a fact of life.  

It is worth remembering that the Clarence River Estuary is an integral part of a vibrant Clarence Valley tourism sector which contributes, along with est.$47 million annual commercial estuary finfish and prawn catches, to a healthy regional economy worth est. $1.82 billion gross in 2016.

Mayor Simmons might also care to consider the environmental impacts of a cruise ship’s wash, given riverbank instability and erosion of estuary soft shorelines is already a problem for Clarence Valley Council.