Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
A general exception applies for
• vessels that operate exclusively in waters under Canadian jurisdiction;
• vessels that operate exclusively in waters under Canadian jurisdiction and in the
United States waters of the Great Lakes Basin or the French waters of the islands
of Saint Pierre and Miquelon;
• vessels engaged in search and rescue operations that are less than 50 m in overall
length and that have a maximum ballast water capacity of 8 m 3 ;
• pleasure craft that are less than 50 m in overall length and that have a maximum
ballast water capacity of 8 m 3 ;
• vessels that carry permanent ballast water in sealed tanks such that it is not subject
to release; or
• vessels that are owned or operated by a state and used only in government non-
commercial service.
Vessels entering the Great Lakes not having performed BWE or saltwater fl ush-
ing have limited alternatives available, which are expensive and time-consuming.
Treatment with sodium chloride brine (initial concentration of 230 ‰) was suggested
as an »emergency« BWM option and seems to be effective (Wang et al. 2012 ).
Should ballast water contain lass than 30 psu it is indicated that this was not
exchanged at sea and in such cases the addition of brine will be considered, possibly
through opened manholes of ballast tanks.
USA
BWM requirements in the U.S. are diverse and are addressed on the federal and
state level. Several approaches exist regarding numeric concentrations of organisms
in ballast water discharges which include standards adopted at IMO, the U.S. Coast
Guard (USCG) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), both
being federal authorities. Further, selected U.S. coastal states have unilaterally
implemented standards. 21 The USEPA and the USCG indicated the likeliness to
possibly go beyond the IMO requirements to protect the environment (Albert et al.
2013 ). In the end of this section we refer to the US “common waters” approach
where vessels are exempted from BWM requirements when conducting intra-
coastal voyages along parts of the US west coast (Lawrence and Cordell 2010 ).
United States Federal BWM Regulations
In general, vessels carrying ballast water which enter a U.S. port after operating
outside the EEZ have either to conduct BWE prior to entry or use an alternative
BWM approach.
21 The states with ballast water relevant rules include Arizona, California, Connecticut, Hawaii,
Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, Washington and
Wisconsin (VGP 2013 ).
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