NOTN- As Alaska wraps up another strong cruise season with over 3 million visitors to the state, Juneau Sen. Jesse Kiehl says work is ongoing to reduce environmental impacts from visiting ships, including discussions about transitioning to cleaner fuels.

Kiehl said Juneau’s port saw about 1.7 million cruise visitors this year, a slight increase from 2024, according to industry data presented at the Alaska Travel Industry Association conference.

Kiehl, who has long advocated for environmental safety in the visitor industry, said he’s in talks about transitioning from scrubber systems, which trap air pollutants but can discharge waste into the ocean, to cleaner-burning fuels.

“It’s got a price tag, and some of the lines are talking to me about what that costs and what the impact would be, and some are keeping that a trade secret, which makes it a little harder to make a good, rational policy decision.” Said Kiehl.

Kiehl said he has no new policies, proposals or bills to announce, but attended a panel hosted by the Southeast Conservation Council, and says, “The best outcome, is to have a visitor industry that’s good for the economy but doesn’t have those impacts on the environment. We’re trying to find the best pathway to get there.”

According to SEACC, discharge from scrubber systems can be toxic to marine life even at very low concentrations.

Aaron Brakel of SEACC writes, “While scrubbers may seem beneficial — removing pollution from the air —  they allow ships to continue burning dirty fuel, transferring those pollutants to the millions of gallons of acidic, polluted wastewater discharged into our living marine waters daily.”