Ballast Water
The Members of the World Shipping Council support an effective solution for managing ballast water discharges from vessels so as to minimize the environmental risk they present as a pathway for invasive marine species. The WSC has long advocated for the need for environmentally protective and economically achievable international standards for the treatment of ship's ballast water.
WSC members support the ratification and implementation of the International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships' Ballast Water and Sediments as adopted by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in February 2004. The IMO Convention sets timelines for the installation of treatment technologies to meet a ballast water treatment standard and includes procedures for the assessment and approval of such technologies. The Convention will enter into force 12 months after it has been ratified by 30 countries representing 35% of the world's merchant shipping tonnage. The U.S. has not yet ratified the IMO Ballast Water Management Convention. Learn more about this Convention.
In the U.S., the National Aquatic Invasive Species Act of 1996 (NISA), which amended the Nonindigenous Aquatic Nuisance Prevention and Control Act of 1990, directed the U.S. Coast Guard to establish a ballast water management program for ships operating in U.S. waters. Pursuant to NISA, in 1998 the U.S. Coast Guard established a voluntary program in which ships were advised to exchange the ballast water in their ballast tanks with deep ocean water to reduce the likelihood that aquatic invasive species would be transferred from foreign ecosystems to the United States. In 2004, the U.S. Coast Guard issued regulations (33 CFR 151) converting this voluntary program into a mandatory program.
Pursuant to a court order vacating a 35-plus year vessel exemption from Clean Water Act (CWA) requirements, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published rules in 2008 requiring commercial vessels of 79 feet or more to obtain CWA National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits for all vessel discharges, including ballast water. These "Vessel General Permit" requirements incorporate the provisions of the U.S. Coast Guard ballast water management regulations and went into effect on February 6, 2009.
Read WSC's comments on EPA's Vessel General Permit.
Learn more from EPA about the Vessel General Permit.
In August 2009, the U.S. Coast Guard published a proposed rule to establish a federal treatment standard for ballast water discharges. This proposed rule proposes two-phases of treatment standards. The phase-one standard, which would apply to new ships delivered starting in 2012, is the same as the standard contained in the IMO Ballast Water Management Convention. The phase-two standard is one-thousand times more stringent than the phase-one/IMO standard and would apply to new ships delivered starting in 2016 and existing ships on the first dry-docking after January 1, 2016. Ships that installed treatment technologies between 2012 and 2016 to comply with phase-one would be required to comply with the phase-two standard five years after the installation of the phase-one system.
The WSC filed comments on this proposed rule on behalf of the liner shipping industry on December 4, 2009. The WSC comments support the U.S. Government's objective to establish an environmentally protective, federal ballast water treatment standard consistent with technological, commercial, and economic practicalities. The WSC comments note, however, that it would be impractical and unreasonable to require vessel owners and operators to install ballast water treatment systems, which are costly and complex engineering installations, in a given ship more than once. The WSC comments therefore recommend that the U.S. Government dispense with the proposed phase-one standard and undertake an immediate practicability review of the proposed phase-two standard. Then, based on the findings of this review, the U.S. Government could either establish a reasonable timeframe for industry to install Coast Guard approved technologies that meet the standard or, if the phase-two standard is not found to be practicable, adopt a standard that is determined to be the most biologically-effective standard that is practicable.
Many commenters to the proposed rule, including other industry groups and some U.S. states, also recommened that the U.S. Government not use a two-phased approach and proceed instead with implementation of a single standard that would obviate the need for multiple installations on a given ship and provide a more stable benchmark upon which the treatment systems could be developed.
Read the WSC's comments on the Coast Guard's proposed rule on ballast water treatment standards.