State fills empty cruise panel seats

An Auke Bay marine ecologist has been chosen to serve on the state's Cruise Ship Wastewater Science Advisory Panel.

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Michelle Ridgway fills the panel's legislatively mandated non-governmental organization (NGO) seat, vacated when Gershon Cohen was removed from the panel at the industry's request.

Cohen co-wrote the cruise ship initiative approved by voters in 2006 that places regulations on cruise ship wastewater discharges.

Cruise lines have complained the environmental regulations are too strict, and were suing over taxes imposed by the same law until Alaska's governor struck a deal with them this week.

Cohen was removed by the state Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Larry Hartig in January, after a complaint by Alaska Cruise Association Executive Director John Binkley prompted him to rethink the process, Hartig said.

A group of six Democratic legislators, including Juneau Rep. Beth Kerttula, called for Cohen's immediate reinstatement in a Jan. 26 letter to Gov. Sean Parnell, calling his removal "a troubling abuse of power."

Ridgway is qualified but concerns remain over Cohen's removal, Kerttula said last week.

"The commissioner put the integrity of the panel at risk in abruptly dismissing him because of industry pressure," she said.

Gov. Sean Parnell on Friday announced support for a 25 percent reduction in the state's $46 cruise ship passenger head tax imposed by the cruise ship initiative.

In exchange for lower taxes, the industry would drop its federal lawsuit to repeal the tax and send more ships to Alaska, Parnell said. The tax cut has to be approved by the Legislature.

The governor made the announcement after attending an industry trade show in Miami, where he met with cruise executives and heard about Alaska's "far too costly, subjective environmental regime," according to notes from his speech.

Parnell, in the announcement at an Anchorage luncheon, said the state also needs to increase regulatory flexibility for the cruise industry, but he did not propose any regulatory changes.

In the same bill that created the science advisory panel, the Legislature last year eased environmental requirements and gave more time for cruise ships to comply.

The panel is charged with studying wastewater treatment technologies and determining which ones might help the cruise industry come into compliance.

Ridgway, who owns a marine environmental services consulting business, earned a master's degree in fisheries ecology from the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 1993, and has more than 25 years of field research experience in Alaskan oceans.

She has served on North Pacific Fishery Management Council and Alaska Marine Conservation Council committees, and has additional affiliations with fisheries organizations, as well as being the founder of the Alaska Deep Ocean Institute.

Oceana and the Alaska Conservation Alliance put Ridgway's name forward.

The state also named an 11th panel member, EPA representative Kenneth Fisher, a U.S. Public Health Service Engineer Officer.

The panel's next meeting will take place in June.

• Contact reporter Kim Marquis at523-2279 or kim.marquis@juneauempire.com.