Pollution Control News

It is often difficult to push through the federal government morass to focus on the issues that actually matter to the inland operator. While 2020 inevitably will be a contentious year in American politics, it is critical to stay focused on the items that will have direct impact on the U.S. maritime industry. From a potential new Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) bill to potential Jones Act challenges, 2020 will be an important year for inland operators to stay politically engaged.Work on WRDAJanuary marked the beginning of Congress’ work in earnest toward introducing a new WRDA bill.

Fears about a shortage of diesel and other middle distillates stemming from new marine pollution regulations have receded, with distillate premiums falling to some of the lowest levels for two years.From the start of 2020, ocean-going ships will be required to use low-sulphur fuels or employ exhaust gas cleaning systems, known has scrubbers, under pollution control rules approved by the International Maritime Organization (IMO).Fuel traders and shipowners have warned for several…

The Regional Clean Sea Organization (RECSO), an oil industry co-operative organisation in the Middle East, has hosted First RECSO Enviro Spill Conference and Exhibition.In delivering the keynote speech at the opening ceremony, Abdulhakim A. Al-Gouhi, vice president of Industrial Services with Saudi Aramco, called on members to collaborate to protect the pristine Gulf environment through prevention, preparedness, and response.“We come together to demonstrate our unlimited commitment toward protecting the marine environment from any harmful effects of pollution…

A Singapore company has paid a NOK 7 million ($763,000) fine after it was caught trying to illegally export a barge carrier vessel from Norway for scrapping on the beaches in Pakistan, Norwegian authorities said.In 2017, inspectors from the Norwegian Maritime Authority (NMA) detained the Harrier, previously named Tide Carrier, when it suffered an engine failure and started to drift outside Jæren in Rogaland. Wirana Shipping Corporation, a company which buys discarded ships and sells them to scrap yards at beaches in India and Pakistan…

ACO Marine said it has completed the commissioning of wastewater treatment units aboard the ropax sisters Sveti Krševan, Supertar and Cres operated by Croatian owner Jadrolinija.The three 87.6m vessels were each retrofitted with a Clarimar MF-2 biological-type sewage treatment plant at the Dalmont shipyard in Kraljevica, Croatia, the oldest continuously operating shipyard in the world, with a history dating back to 1729.Italy’s La Fornitrice, ACO Marine’s engineering partner in the region, completed the commissioning of the system aboard Cres, the final ship in the series, in May.

New Bedford, Massachusetts-based Vila Nova do Corvo II, Inc., company managers Carlos Rafael and Stephanie Rafael DeMello, and vessel captain Carlos Pereira agreed to pay a total of $511,000 in civil penalties and to perform vessel improvements.This was to ensure compliance measures to resolve federal Clean Water Act claims stemming from oily bilge discharges from the commercial fishing vessel Vila Nova do Corvo II, a related discharge of fuel oil filters, and violations of pollution control regulations.The United States filed the complaint in this action in April 2019 in the U.S.

The hard-fought passage of VIDA promises a simpler, more unified and logical set of environmental standards related to the discharge of myriad vessel streams. Industry wanted it, and now it is here. Will it deliver, and if so, when? That depends on who you talk to.As most commercial maritime operators know, US ballast water regulations made a sharp turn last December. That’s when President Trump signed the Frank LoBiondo Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2018.That legislation contained Title IX – the “Vessel Incidental Discharge Act (VIDA)…

Dubai-headquartered hull-cleaning company has announced it is opening its first operations base in the Americas, in partnership with subsea services in Panama, Talleres Industriales, to offer its hull cleaning solution to the vessels transiting the Panama Canal.The agreement forms part of HullWiper’s global leasing programme introduced in 2017, which works with partners around the world to offer ship owners and operators an affordable, brush- and diver-free alternative to traditional…

A federal grand jury in Wilmington, Delaware, returned a six-count indictment today charging Chartworld Shipping Corporation, Nederland Shipping Corporation, and Chief Engineer Vasileios Mazarakis with failing to keep accurate pollution control records, falsifying records, obstruction of justice, and witness tampering, the Justice Department announced.The charges stem from the falsification of records and other acts designed to cover up from the Coast Guard the overboard discharges of oily mixtures and machinery space bilge water from the Bahamian-flagged cargo vessel…

$1 Million Will Go to Projects that Support Cleanup of Marine Pollution, Preservation of Aquatic Life, and Restoration of Shorelines around Newark Bay.A shipping company based in Italy today admitted discharging oily waste and other pollutants into the sea and then lying about it, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito and Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Bossert Clark announced.The company, d’Amico Shipping Italia S.p.A., pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Susan D. Wigenton in Newark federal court to an information charging it with violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships.

Abadan, Arvandankar and Choabdeh ports experienced an increase of 56% in 2018, says Iran's Ports and Maritime Organization (PMO).Abadan ports and maritime management announced that the export of goods from the three ports of Abadan in the past year has shown a  growing trend.According to the information system, the exports from these ports increased by 39.471 tons in the same period last year which shows a growth of 56.3% in exports, it said.Agricultural products, meat and meat products…

The costs of a massive fire and chemical spill at a Houston petrochemical facility have begun trickling out, with a local official on Monday estimating emergency response costs at $800,000 for the first two weeks of the disaster alone.A blaze at Mitsui & Co Ltd's Intercontinental Terminals Co (ITC) petrochemical facility in Deer Park, Texas, last month released cancer-causing chemicals into the air and waterway that connects Houston to the Gulf of Mexico, disrupting shipping along the nation's busiest oil port.County employees devoted 16…

On August 18, 1990, the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA 90) was enacted into law. Section 4202 of that Act amended the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA or Clean Water Act) to require tank vessels and marine transportation-related facilities to prepare and submit to the US Coast Guard plans for responding, to the maximum extent practicable, to a worse case discharge, and to a substantial threat of such a discharge, of oil or a hazardous substance carried in bulk as cargo.

On December 4, President Trump signed into law the Frank LoBiondo Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2018 (S. 140). Title IX of the legislation is the Vessel Incidental Discharge Act of 2018 (VIDA). VIDA will largely cut through a morass of conflicting and confusing requirements that have developed over a number of years relating to discharges into US waters. This purpose of this new legislation is to: (1) provide for the establishment of uniform and environmentally sound standards and requirements for the management of discharges incidental to the normal operation of a vessel…

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of the 50 Mega Watt liquefied natural gas (LNG) based power project in south Andaman. The will take around 18 months to be operational.NTPC Limited’s wholly-owned subsidiary NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam (NVVN) will build the plant which is expected to improve the quality of life of the residents of Andaman and Nicobar Islands and boost the economic development.The plant shall be operational through Dual Fuel — LNG or HSD…

Swiss container shipping company Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) paid $630,625 in penalties to the California Air Resources Board (CARB) for violating the Ocean-Going Vessel At-Berth Regulation.According to CARB, the violations were discovered during a routine audit of the company’s 2014 visits to the Port of Oakland and the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.The investigation by CARB revealed more than 2500 violations for both the Oakland and LA/LB fleets for failing…

While all eyes are on 2020 and the introduction of the IMO’s global sulphur cap, Hong Kong and Taiwan are aligning their emission regulations with the Chinese Emission Control Area (ECA) requirements and will implement a local 0.50% sulphur cap from 1 January 2019, said Gard.A release from the maritime insurer said that the IMO Marine Environment Protection Committee’s 73rd session (MEPC73) has just ended, and with it, so did all speculations about a potential delay of the global 0.50% sulphur cap.

HullWiper is meeting growing demand for affordable and eco-friendly hull cleaning in the Panama Canal in partnership with the provider of subsea services Talleres Industriales, said a statement from the marine fouling remover company.It is the latest agreement signed under HullWiper’s global leasing programme introduced in 2017, which works with partners around the world to offer ship owners and operators a cost-efficient, brush- and diver-free alternative to traditional hull…

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has reached an agreement with Hawaiian repair yard Keehi Marine, Inc. to reduce pollution in its stormwater discharges to Keehi Lagoon and the Pacific Ocean.Acting on a tip it received from the public, EPA performed an inspection in April 2017 at the Honolulu boatyard and found accumulation of fine sediment and debris without controls that prevent stormwater and associated debris from entering stormwater discharges and flowing into Keehi Lagoon and the Pacific Ocean. It was discovered that recent flooding at a covered work area indicating pollutants had washed offsite. From September 2016 to December 2017…

Port of Hamburg is taking a further step toward improving air quality at its port. Innovative technology developed right here in the city is set to enable large and very large container ships to switch off their auxiliary diesel supplies during lay time and instead draw the power they need for on-board operations from a new kind of mobile generator.Becker Marine Systems, Hapag-Lloyd AG and Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA) have been testing the new technology as part of a joint pilot project since the start of the year.

The Vessel General Permit (VGP) falls under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA), better known as the Clean Water Act. It is administered by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), an agency not well known or understood by the maritime industry.For years, the EPA had adopted a policy of broadly exempting discharges into the water that were incidental to normal operation of vessels. That changed after environmental advocacy groups prevailed in a judicial challenge. The first iteration of the VGP entered into effect in 2008 and remained in effect until replaced by the current iteration in 2013.

A recent study on nonindigenous species of plankton in ballast discharges from U.S. and Canadian lakers to western Lake Superior documented five species of nonindigenous zooplankton not yet established in western Lake Superior, including Hemimysis anomala (“bloody red shrimp”), in ballast water discharged there. It also detected, in uptake water, a species of zooplankton (Paraleptastacus wilsoni) that had not previously been recorded in the Great Lakes.Some of the species, including this one, live in harbor sediment and may have escaped routine surveillance to date.

Challenge Fisheries LLC, Quinn Fisheries Inc., Charles Quinn II, and Charles Quinn III have agreed to pay a total of $414,000 in civil penalties and to perform fleet-wide improvements and other compliance assurance measures to resolve federal Clean Water Act claims stemming from oily bilge discharges from the commercial fishing vessel Challenge, and a related fuel oil discharge in August 2017 in New Bedford Harbor, Mass., the Department of Justice and the Coast Guard announced.In its complaint filed Monday, along with the lodging of a consent decree in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, the United States alleges…