Are Ferries Environmentally-Friendly?

There is good news and there is bad news for ferry advocates made anxious by charges that ferries damage the environment.

The good news is that the environmentalist leading the charge against ferries now believes that “it’s possible that San Francisco will one day have the worlds biggest, and “greenest” ferry system, for the rest of the world to admire.”

The bad news is the price tag – in money and commuter convenience - for being environmentally responsible.   

Dr. Russell Long, Executive Director of Bluewater Network -- the group that first went public with the environmental concerns – writes in this issue of Bay Crossings that “thirty years ago, ferries actually were less polluting than cars, but that was before the EPA and the California Air Resources Board decided to crack down on automobile emissions and the fuels they use. Since 1970, automobile engines have become over 95 percent cleaner. In contrast, ferries and other commercial vessels, as well as their high sulfur diesel fuels, have managed to entirely escape scrutiny or regulation under the Clean Air Act.  

Dr. Long also raises important questions about wake damage, risks to marine mammals and birds and recreational boater safety.  Harried commuters will be concerned about Dr. Long’s proposals to limit the speed at which fast ferries travel. 

But Dr. Long is hardly immune to the romantic attraction of ferries or unsympathetic to the compelling need to improve and expand Bay Area public transportation.  An America’s Cup skipper and life-long sailor, Dr. Long made clear his conceptual support for ferries in a series of interviews with Bay Crossings -- provided “ferry system operators… demonstrate that they are proactively meeting the challenge of protecting the environment”.   

Also in this issue is an article by Jim Sweeney of Seaworthy Systems, a major engineering consultant to the workboat sector, a marine industry classification into which ferryboats fall.  Mr. Sweeney takes Dr. Long to task for the methodologies employed in earlier reports publicized by Bluewater.   

These two articles are important reading for anyone interested in the role ferries might play in the future of Bay Area public transportation.  Vexing questions remain to be addressed, but when it comes to the question of ferries and the environment there is cause for cautious optimism.