When not bedeviling SUV manufacturers (by devising a California law that limits greenhouse gases, giving the Bush administration fits), banishing water-skis or holding the cruise industry to account, the eco-warriors at San Francisco-based Bluewater Network somehow found the time to turn the screws on San Francisco Bay ferry planners. The result is a WTA plan headed to the legislature packed with environmental protections and improvements. Meanwhile, ferry service in New York and environs expands by leaps and bounds. Watch out, East Coast ferry operators: Bluewater is headed your way.
Published: January, 2003
Just blocks from Ground Zero, the Hudson River is coming back to life. Oysters, striped bass, sturgeon, and even delicate seahorses are returning to the dark river after decades of cleanup and restoration. The marine creatures are on view in aquariums flowing with river water at The River Project offices at Pier 26. The living display is an element of the ongoing research, education, and urban ecology conducted by project staff and interns. The aquatic life was a hopeful sign in the shadow of the place where terrorism struck home for America.
Those moments with the river dwellers were among the highlights of my recent junket to New York Harbor to research its impressive ferry system. While there, I laid the groundwork for extending Bluewater Network’s successful clean ferry program in San Francisco to New York. San Francisco Bay will have to play catch-up if it wants to be the largest ferry fleet in the nation. The New York/New Jersey fleet already numbers more than 50 vessels. A dozen or more are on order to serve commuters, visitors, shoreline communities, and waterfront parks. New York’s plan for hosting the Olympics calls for a fleet of 52 vessels to carry athletes and spectators to events—a stellar opportunity to build a new generation of clean vessels.
While problematic ferry wakes have been featured in the New York Times, the issue of air pollution from ferry engines and ways to make them cleaner has not. Using the San Francisco Water Transit Authority’s new air emissions standards and environmental measures as a model, Bluewater Network aims to help lead the way to clean up New York’s fleet and set high goals for new vessels. While the Bay’s new fleet will be ten times cleaner than it is today, the New York fast ferry fleet still blackens the air with diesel exhaust and throws wakes that pound marinas and bulkheads. But change is on the horizon as the size and importance of the ferry fleet escalates.
The local environmental community welcomed my visit because of growing concern about environmental impacts from ferries. Even with our two years of collaboration with ferry planners, operators, policy makers, and labor, none have Bluewater’s expertise on ferry issues and solutions. At a ferry summit attended by top New York environmentalists, I gave an extensive briefing on air pollution, wakes, and other impacts. The local experts then briefed me on ferry projects and plans in the region.
At the end of the summit, we decided to initiate the New York/New Jersey Clean Ferry Coalition. The group consists of environmental, public health, and transportation groups “advocating for solutions to increased air and water pollution, damaging wakes and other impacts generated by operating and expanding the diesel-powered ferry system in the waterways of New York and New Jersey.” Key supporters include Hudson Riverkeeper, NY/NJ Baykeeper, The River Project, and INFORM. Other groups are coming on board as we develop our campaign platform and strategies. The coalition’s first action was to submit lengthy comments on the proposed new Pier 79 Ferry Terminal on the Hudson River near the Lincoln Tunnel, one of ten or more ferry projects currently underway or planned in the region.
Like my environmental colleagues, most of the city and state officials, air regulators, and ferry operators I met did not realize that diesel ferries create more air pollution than cars or buses. The independent reports I distributed to everyone were real eye-openers, and, in some cases, the recipients found them hard to believe. The next step is to compile a New York Ferry Emissions Report to quantify air quality impacts in the region and how the ferry system compares to other modes.
Like marine life in the Hudson River, the New York ferry fleet is growing and thriving post-September 11. This is largely due to $33 million in federal emergency funds given to the city to provide ferry service to commuters while the popular PATH subway under the Hudson River to Hoboken, New Jersey, is repaired. However, fleet expansion predates the World Trade Center disaster.
The ferry network is run by a tangle of public and private operators in association with city, state, and regional authorities. The ferry system has been growing steadily for a decade or more, as newer, faster ferries have been put into service, mostly by New York Waterway. New York Water Taxi is also running short, frequent daytime routes in the Harbor. High-end fast ferries operated by Seastreak and New York Fast Ferry serve longer routes to New Jersey. The grandmother of the fleet, the Staten Island Ferry, has operated 24/7 since the 1960s. At least three of Staten Island’s eight ferries are being replaced with new vessels.
In addition to the Pier 79 project, three new ferry terminals are planned at Battery Park, Hoboken, and Port Imperial/Weehawken that will significantly increase ferry traffic in New York Harbor. The Whitehall Terminal at the tip of Manhattan and St. George Ferry Terminal are also being expanded to serve the Staten Island Ferry. In addition, smaller facilities and new ferry services have been instituted or are planned at East 34th Street, East 62nd Street, East 75th Street, and East 90th Street along the East River. The town of Edgewater in Bergen County also plans to seek new ferry service in the near future.
While water transit makes absolute sense for traversing the Hudson and East Rivers and freeing commuters from the tyranny of bridges and tunnels, ferry expansion is occurring with very little, if any, environmental review. Collectively, these interrelated projects have the potential to create tremendous impacts on the Harbor and the air quality of the region.
Each ferry produces far more air pollution per passenger mile than any other transit mode, including single-occupant cars and diesel buses. Yet, in New York Harbor there has not been any analysis of the cumulative impacts relating to the air emissions and wakes from these vessels, nor any in-depth inquiry into the potential water quality impacts from wastewater generated on the vessels, disruption or damage to wildlife and habitats, or other environmental impacts. It is time that these impacts are evaluated, addressed, and minimized to assure the sustainability of the fleet and the health of the region’s people and ecosystems.
The current state of NYC’s air quality makes it critical that any increase in air emissions be prevented. For the third year in a row, all of New York City’s five boroughs have failed the American Lung Association’s State of the Air Report. Addressing the quality of the air is a critical public health concern as over 1.1 million people in the New York City metropolitan area and 1 out of every 10 NYC schoolchildren suffer asthma, a chronic and often debilitating disease. Currently, over 100,000 people visit the emergency room and over 36,000 people are admitted to the hospital each summer because of elevated ozone levels in New York City.
Staten Island Ferry
Riding any of the New York ferries provides one of the most incredible and powerful panoramas in the world. San Francisco has the grandeur of the Golden Gate, but the geography of New York’s skyline (even without the towers), the magnificent bridges, and the Statue of Liberty project an intensity and seriousness that only the world’s economic powerhouse could possess. The view was best from the Staten Island Ferry.
The Staten Island ferries are the only fully publicly funded vessels. The fleet consists of large, lumbering car-ferry type vessels that carry anywhere between 1,200 to 6,000 passengers, and travel at a speed of 16 knots across the 5-mile channel. The three Kennedy class boats have been operating since the 1960s and are due for replacement.
Surprisingly, the new vessels are not being designed to accommodate new air emissions controls to reduce the hundreds of tons of pollutants released into the already compromised air of the metropolitan region. Currently, the fleet emits 450 tons per year of smog-forming gases and 25 tons of cancer-causing soot. Surely, the time to invest in cleaner technologies is when building new vessels that will run round the clock for decades. These technologies are available today.
New York Waterway
At the other end of the ferry spectrum, New York Waterway operates a fleet of 49 quick, small vessels that crisscross the Hudson and speed up and down the East River. By far the biggest private operator in New York Harbor, the company also runs a fleet of blue-and-red feeder buses for commuters. About 15 million passengers ride these ferries into Manhattan each year. This fleet was instrumental to the rescue efforts at the World Trade Center. The company responded quickly to the disaster and also secured the use of whale-watching, fishing, and other vessels to meet the immediate crisis. Most of these vessels remain in service. In addition, the fleet will be called upon to whisk commuters to work in the event of a transit strike in the city.
Since September, New York Waterway has been rewarded with millions of dollars of federal emergency funds to operate and increase ferry service. Most of the new ferry terminal projects will benefit New York Waterway’s system and its ferry riders.
When I rode the ferries between New York and New Jersey ports, I found the service to be incredibly efficient and on time. The bowloading vessels allowed for quick loading and unloading without tying up at the dock, which took less than 5 minutes all told. Unlike San Francisco’s long rides, on river crossings you barely have time to get comfortable and open the newspaper before it’s time to get off and board a shuttle bus or make your way to the nearest transit bus or subway. Clearly, it’s a system that works.
However, the emissions from these vessels, like all marine engines, are uncontrolled and unmeasured. It was disconcerting to see the plumes of black smoke pouring from the exhaust opening. Ferry riders, crews, and nearby communities get a blast of exhaust every time the vessel arrives and departs. These short routes are the perfect runs for deploying hybrid-electric ferries that would allow the captain to turn off the diesel engines in port and operate on zero emission battery power.
Top New York Waterway officials were generous enough to meet with me and explain their operations. John Ruzich, vice president of sales and marketing, and Pete Johansen, Senior Director of Regulatory Compliance Safety and Training, said New York Waterway is replacing all of its old diesel engines with modern, electronically controlled diesels. Doing so reduces harmful emissions by about 40 percent, they said.
The company is also participating in a new ferry emissions working group organized by the New York City Department of Transportation, which secured $1.5 million in federal clean air funds to test clean fuels and technologies on the existing fleet. The Private Ferry Emissions Reduction Program will provide New York Waterway and other operators with public funding to test state-of-the-art emissions controls. This is a significant way to start cleaning up the existing fleet.
New York Water Taxi
New York Water Taxi’s Tom Fox appears to be going head to head with New York Waterway in attracting ferry riders. And he is using his environmental credentials and know-how to market his service. Before founding New York Water Taxi with the support of billionaire Douglas Durst, Fox spent most of his career in parks advocacy. In fact, he was instrumental in creating the Hudson River Park. Not long ago, he was hired to come to San Francisco to help city officials with Golden Gate Park projects.
Fox said that the company’s three water taxis are low-wake and handicapped accessible throughout, unlike any other. He is building three more to put into service next year to operate short hops up and down the East River and Hudson River to serve both commuters and visitors. The vessels are easy to spot on the water, as they are painted in the familiar yellow and black colors of the city’s taxis.
When riding the brand-new New York Water Taxi vessels, I did not see the visible exhaust that was so obvious on other boats. The engines appeared to be running cleaner. I asked a crewman why the exhaust was not visible, and he attributed it to a rigorous daily maintenance program. To be fair, the New York Waterway vessels operate longer hours and more frequently, and many are older vessels. But reducing visible emissions is clearly not an impossible goal.
We hope that Fox will utilize with his green credentials to help push for cleaner diesel engines in his and other fleets.
While I did not ride Seastreak or New York Fast Ferry vessels, I did see them traversing the Harbor. These are large vessels more similar to the fast ferries that operate on San Francisco Bay. Powered by large diesel engines, these types of vessels are equipped with snack bars, TVs, and comfortable seats. Such are the requirements for the one-hour trips taken by these high-speed ferries. Now if only some of the expense spent on comfort and good looks was invested in alternative fuels and new pollution controls.
Wakes
In addition to generating air pollution, the growing New York Harbor fleet has generated troublesome wakes. I experienced the wake problem firsthand at a Safe Wakes Committee meeting on board one of World Yacht’s elegant dining vessels. Docked adjacent to New York Waterway’s busy Pier 78 terminal, we were tossed around quite noticeably each time a ferry came and went, causing borderline seasickness. When the ferry schedule slowed, so did the turbulence.
The Safe Wakes Coalition consists of “marina owners and operators, vessel owners and operators, shoreside commercial, nonprofit and public entities adversely impacted by wake wash seeking relief from the damaging effects of wake wash.” Several marinas are installing breakwaters to prevent the increasing wake activity. Property owners are tracking the damage experienced due to the growing fast ferry fleet. The coalition wants operational measures instituted in the harbor to reduce or eliminate harmful wake effects. The only ways to reduce wake wash are speed, routing, and hull design.
The typical catamaran vessel produces less powerful wakes at speed than a monohull vessel. But when you slow it down, the catamaran wake is often more problematic due to the size, shape, and energy of the wave that it produces.
A draft wake report compiled by the Stevens Institute in Hoboken for the Port of New York/New Jersey was recently released to New York Waterway and other ferry operators. However, it was not made public pending additional research. Until then, the coalition plans to meet and draft measures to present to offending ferry operators and policy makers to address the problem sooner rather than later. Public officials are likely to be called on to help resolve the wake issue in the short term.
Private Operators, Subsidies, and Profits
One refrain that I heard repeatedly from ferry operators, policy makers, environmentalists, and regulators alike while in New York was that the fleet is private, not subsidized, and that the companies cannot afford to invest in clean fuels and technologies. While this argument has merit, it does not represent the full picture. Other transportation sectors have had to share the cost of cleaning up buses, trucks, and cars. Now it is the marine industry’s turn.
To begin with, all the operators receive a form of subsidy in terms of the terminal facilities built using public funds. Without docks and terminals, ferries can’t operate.
Real subsidies have occurred in mass lately with the influx of much-needed FEMA money to provide commuter transit while the PATH line to Hoboken is repaired. In fact, the September 2002 issue of Forbes magazine reported that as a result of government subsidies, New York Waterway was “awash in cash. Net income jumped to $5.8 million on $47 million in revenue (in 2001), up from $2 million and $37 million in 2000.”
According to the writer, NY Waterway is receiving $1.4 million a month in public funding to run extra service post-9/11. Some of that money should be used to make the ferries cleaner with use of low-sulfur fuels, biodiesel, and the installation of air pollution controls.
Nor are the other operators devoid of resources. New York Water Taxi is bankrolled by Douglas Durst, one of New York’s wealthiest real estate moguls. While no one argues that a business needs to make a profit, think of the marketing opportunities if the company were to be the first to build a fleet of super-clean vessels, setting the bar for all competitors. Technology such as hybrid-electric configurations can be built today that would reduce emissions and save money in fuel by not burning diesel all day long.
Seastreak is owned by the multinational corporation Sea Containers LTD, which operates the world’s largest fast ferry fleet. It runs high-speed catamarans across the English Channel and the Mediterranean under the subsidiary Hoverspeed. Sea Containers Ltd. is a Bermuda company with operating subsidiaries in London, Genoa, New York, Rio de Janeiro, and Sydney. It is owned primarily by U.S. shareholders, according to the company website. The company is also highly profitable, with net income up 105 percent for the first nine months of 2002, with $27.9 million income on revenue of $1.23 million.
New York Fast Ferry is part of the publicly traded Lighthouse Ferry Company based in West Caldwell, New Jersey. According to Yahoo’s business website, the company operates four vessels to provide service between Highlands and Keyport, New Jersey, and Manhattan.
All these companies should be called upon to share the costs of cleaning up ferries along with public agencies.
A Vision for New York Harbor
Bluewater Network shares the vision of others in New York of enhancing the ferry system in the Harbor to increase mobility and access to the waterfront, but only if the existing vessels are cleaned up and new boats are designed from the start to be environmentally sound.
The Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance recently produced a new waterfront map that shows existing ferry routes and waterfront destinations. Its Blue Links plan calls for new waterfront infrastructure and transportation improvements that can provide better access. MWA envisions a regional ferry system possibly funded by bridge tolls, similar to what is being proposed in San Francisco. Bluewater Network supports MWA’s vision and advocacy for the waterfront.
But in order to make fast ferries competitive with other transit modes, they must be 85 percent cleaner than the new federal standards taking effect between 2004 and 2007 require, according to independent air quality studies. This is the standard that the San Francisco Bay Water Transit Authority is mandating for its fleet of 30 or more new vessels. The Port of Los Angeles recently announced a policy of “no net air emissions increase” in its busy commercial harbor. Surely, New York Harbor can meet or beat these standards.
The San Francisco Bay Water Transit Authority published a technical evaluation of 39 different technology and fuel combinations that will significantly reduce air emissions. Several choices currently available include add-on controls to diesel engines, gas turbine engines, and hybrid-electric boats. Use of low-sulfur fuels and biodiesel can also help. The WTA has even committed to building the first fuel cell-powered ferry.
The state of New York should consider setting a low-emissions sulfur fuel standard for use in all passenger ferries standard as has been done in California.
Environmental Defense has already convinced New York City to use ultra-low sulfur fuel for cleanup and construction activities around the World Trade Center. ED is working with ferry operators to find ways to clean up the existing fleet utilizing federal clean air congestion management funding. The existing fleet should capitalize on the public funding and tests, then commit to a long-term plan for utilizing the fuels and technologies after testing.
Bluewater Network is supporting the ferry industry’s efforts to increase federal funding to ferries across the nation through the Transportation Equity Act reauthorization next year. This provides an excellent opportunity for ferry operators to compete on more equal footing with highway, bus, and other transit operators. The key will be to ensure that environmental standards are attached to any new funding for ferries.
Ferries–The Next Generation
Imagine a fleet of vessels gliding across the harbor powered by clean electricity and supplemented with solar power and wings that add wind power. Such a vessel already operates in Sydney Harbor in Australia. The Solar Sailor is the first solar, wind-power ferry in the world. It is also quiet, low-wake, and can run without any fuel. To achieve better speeds, the vessel is equipped with generators that can operate on fossil fuels or biodiesel.
The charter boat operated by Captain Cook Cruises has proven the feasibility of a hybrid-electric configuration that uses batteries to store power generated by solar panels installed across the deck and wings. The computerized rigid wings act like sails under the right conditions. The prototype is now ready for commercialization.
New York City’s Olympic Committee should consider taking the lead in building a fleet of similar vessels customized for the Harbor’s conditions to use during the Olympics (if the city does indeed win the bid). Then, the clean fleet could be leased or given to local operators for commute and tour operations.
In order to best expand and clean up the New York Harbor fleet, it may make sense to institute an oversight mechanism such as a commission or agency that is primarily responsible for the coordination, growth, and environmental responsibility of the ferries.
For more information about Bluewater Network, visit www.bluewaternetwork.org or contact Teri Shore at tshore@bluewaternetwork.org.
