Water Discharge

Standards for Ballast Water Discharge

The US Coast Guard proposes to amend its regulations on ballast water management by establishing standards for the allowable concentration of living organisms in ships’ ballast water discharged in US waters. It also proposes to amend its regulations for approving engineering equipment by establishing an approval process for ballast water management systems. These proposed regulations are intended to aid in controlling the introduction and spread of nonindigenous species from ships discharging ballast water in US waters. The ballast water discharge standards would be used to approve ballast water management systems that are at least as effective as ballast water exchange in preventing or reducing the introduction of nonindigenous species via discharged ballast water. The Coast Guard is proposing a two-phase rulemaking. The first phase would adopt the draft IMO standard for ballast water discharges. Phase two, to come into effect in 2016, would adopt a more stringent standard, modeled on standards that have been developed by several of the US states. A practicability review would be conducted to determine if the implementation date for phase two could be advanced or retarded, based on technological developments. 74 Fed. Reg. 44631 (August 28, 2009). The Coast Guard also issued a notice stating that it is seeking comments on the Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (DPEIS) on these standards. 74 Fed. Reg. 44673 (August 28, 2009)

USCG Accepts BWTS as Alternate Management Systems

The U.S. Coast Guard announced the acceptance of nine ballast water treatment systems today as Alternate Management Systems (AMS) in compliance with the service’s March 2012 final rule for Standards for Living Organisms in Ships’ Ballast Water Discharged (SLOSBWD) in U.S. waters. AMS acceptance by the Coast Guard is a temporary designation given to a ballast water treatment system approved by a foreign administration

FastHex Method Solves Environmental Discharge Compliance Monitoring

The new FastHex Method, available from Turner Designs, allows oil companies to abandon Freon extraction methods for measuring oil and grease discharge into the world's oceans. The new Method, when combined with the TD-360 field instrument, solves a critical industry dilemma - eliminating Freon from the field laboratory methods used to measure oil and grease discharge to the ocean. Oil companies annually discharge more than 500,000 bbls of produced water into the Gulf of Mexico

EPA Reminder, VGP NOI Requirement

On December 29, 2008, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a notice stating that it had finalized the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Vessel General Permit (VGP) program. The VGP program regulates discharges into waters of the United States that are incidental to the normal operation of a vessel (otherwise known as “incidental discharges”). The program applies to incidental discharges of non-recreational vessels with a length of 79 feet or longer

STUDY: Ballast Water Measures Are Falling Short

Not Enough Ships Able to Flush Out Invasive Species Before They Reach Port, Smithsonian Environmental Research Center Reports Invasive species have hitchhiked to the U.S. on cargo ships for centuries, but the method U.S. regulators most rely on to keep them out is not equally effective across coasts. Ecologists from the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center have found that ports on the East Coast and the Gulf of Mexico are significantly less protected than ports on the West Coast

US Shipbuilder Receives Environmental Awards

Huntington Ingalls Industries' Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS) division receives HRSD gold awards. NNS received gold awards for meeting industrial waste water discharge limits mandated by Hampton Roads Sanitation District (HRSD) and for meeting HRSD's technical and administrative requirements. Gold awards were presented to local companies for perfect permit compliance in 2012 and NNS has earned recognition from the HRSD every year since the awards were first presented in 1994.

Coast Guard Proposes National Ballast Water Management Program

The U.S. Coast Guard is proposing mandating vessels equipped with ballast tanks take measures to prevent and control the spread of nonindigenous species in U.S. waters through ballast water discharges. Nonindigenous aquatic plant and animal species (NIS) are increasingly viewed as a global environmental problem with large and long-lasting ecological and economic impacts. Introduced into habitats where they are not native, NIS

USCG Seeks Ballast Water Treatment Testing Participants

The U.S. Coast Guard announced the beginning of a program aimed at facilitating the installation of experimental shipboard ballast water treatment systems. Foreign and domestic vessel owners that participate in the program may be granted equivalencies to U.S. ballast water regulations for participating vessels. The Shipboard Technology Evaluation Program (STEP) is one of several Coast Guard initiatives aimed at reducing the introduction of nonindigenous species (NIS) to U.S

New England Shipyards Cited for Environmental Violations

Two New England shipyards, one in Massachusetts and one in Rhode Island, will pay penalties to settle claims by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that they violated federal environmental laws. Rose’s Oil Service, a shipyard and fuel oil distributor in Gloucester, Mass., will pay $130,000 to resolve claims it violated federal water and oil pollution prevention laws. Under the settlement agreement between Rose’s Oil and EPA’s New England office

Are the Ballast Water Stars Finally Aligning?

Ballast water was first recognized by the scientific community as a vector for transfer of potentially invasive marine species more than 30 years ago.  It took a number of years, and acceptance that zebra mussels had reached the Great Lakes in the ballast water of ships arriving from the Black Sea, before the maritime industry generally acknowledged that they were part of the problem.  Initially, high seas ballast water exchange was the only available means for removing potentially