University Of Maryland Center News

Serious questions have been raised regarding the testing of ballast water management systems (BWMSs). In order for a BWMS manufacturer to sell its equipment for use on commercial vessels operating in U.S. waters, the equipment must be tested in accordance with U.S. Coast Guard and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requirements and the equipment must then obtain a type approval certificate from the Coast Guard. To date, type approval certificates have been issued to six manufacturers and others are in the pipeline.

Maritime Environmental Resource Center will no longer conduct Type Approval Certification testing of ballast water management systems. The Maritime Environment Resource Center (MERC) was established in 2008 by the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES) to facilitate the development and adoption of Green Ship and Green Port innovations with a primary goal of expanding on over twenty years of research addressing the issues of ballast water invasive species. Invasive species introduction through the release of ship’s ballast water have enormous ecological and economic impacts on coastal waters around the world.

The Mississippi River basin has gotten a report card from a group that monitors watershed health and economic impact — and the grade is D+. The organization, America's Watershed Initiative, cited the poor condition of infrastructure such as locks and dams, and a lack of funding that could lead to water security issues. The Mississippi River watershed is the fourth-largest in the world, according to the group. It is made up of five river basins that flow across 31 states. It falls short in its goal of serving as the nation's most valuable water passage…

Ballast water treatment system testing facility earns U.S. Coast Guard approval. The University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science's Maritime Environmental Resource Center (MERC) has partnered with NSF International, Great Ships Initiative and Retlif Testing Laboratories to become the first U.S. Coast Guard-approved Independent Laboratory for evaluation and testing of technologies designed for treatment of ballast water on ships. Ballast water carries non-native species from around the world can pose economic, ecological and public health risks. U.S.

Commercial fleet owners and marine suppliers are preparing for the industry’s first Work Boats Exchange, a hosted buyer event to be held April 9-12 at the Ritz-Carlton Fort Lauderdale. The first-of-its-kind event is not a traditional trade show, but rather a high-level, working business meeting, matching commercial fleet owners with senior-level suppliers, who are seeking to help them operate their businesses more efficiently, according to Robert Ingraham, Chief Executive Officer of Global Exchange Events, organizers of the event. The Exchange will enable fleet owners to sit down across the table in pre-arranged meetings with leading marine suppliers for 20 minutes at a time.

•    Frances G. •    Terry D. •    Cherry A. The bipartisan Commission, established through an Executive Order, is tasked with providing recommendations on how we can prevent – and mitigate the impact of – any future spills that result from offshore drilling. The Council is co-chaired by former two-term Florida Governor and former U.S. Senator Bob Graham and former Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency William K. Reilly. Frances G. Frances Beinecke is currently the President of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a non-profit corporation that works to advance environmental policy in the United States and across the world. Ms. Beinecke has worked at NRDC for 35 years, serving as executive director, associate director and deputy executive director.

On July 22 Congressman Elijah E. Cummings (Md.-7), Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation, will join the Maryland Department of Transportation, the Maryland Port Administration, the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, and the U.S. Maritime Administration aboard the MV Cape Washington to announce the kick-off of an important new research and testing project, the Maritime Environmental Resource Center (MERC). MERC has been organized to help prevent the spread of invasive aquatic species into the Chesapeake Bay and other water bodies in the . Specifically, the scientists at MERC will test the effectiveness of systems designed to safely treat ballast water before it is discharged from ships' ballast tanks.

After many months of review and many years of testing, NEI Treatment Systems’ Venturi Oxygen StrippingTM (VOS) ballast water treatment system has been issued a Type Approval Certificate of Ballast Water Management System. The Certification was issued by the Liberian Register, with technical review by the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS). Land-based biological testing was conducted by the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory (CBL) of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. U.S. Federal Government Laboratory. The testing was funded by the U.S. Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) as part of the U.S. Program. In 2004, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) finalized the International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships’ Ballast Water and Sediments…