US and Canada set new pollution-control rules for ships in coastal areas

WASHINGTON - The United States and Canada plan to establish new pollution-control zones for ports along their coasts, a policy that would force domestic and foreign ships alike to curb emissions linked to thousands of illnesses and premature deaths each year.

The restrictions announced yesterday, which the Environmental Protection Agency outlined in a request Friday to the International Maritime Organization, will require large vessels such as oil tankers, cruise ships and cargo ships to either use low-sulfur fuel or new technology to ensure that they emit less sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and soot while within 200 nautical miles of the lower 48 states. It would also apply to the seven populated Hawaiian islands and one uninhabited nature preserve, Kahoolawe, and to Anchorage.

The EPA said creation of this "emissions control area" will save as many as 8,300 American and Canadian lives every year by 2020 and protect Americans living as far inland as Kansas.

"This is an important - and long overdue - step in our efforts to protect the air and water along our shores, and the health of the people in our coastal communities," said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson in Port Newark, N.J., with Coast Guard and state officials.

The International Maritime Organization - a United Nations body that oversees air pollution and other policies for ocean-going vessels - approved the concept of emission control areas in October, and today's announcement represents the strongest interpretation possible under that law.

Under the proposal ships must use fuel with no more than 1,000 parts per million sulfur beginning in 2015.