Policy and Legal Framework and the Current Status of Ballast Water Management Requirements - Global Maritime Transport and Ballast Water Management: Issues and Solutions - page 69

arrangements in port, or at dry dock, and minimizing the discharge of ballast water
essential for vessel operations while in the waters subject to the VGP. A new version
of the VGP was issued in March 2013 by the USEPA (VGP 2013 ). The permit
becomes effective 19 December 2013, when the current permit will expire. 24
The ballast water numeric discharge limitations of VGP are identical with the
Ballast Water Performance Standard as set out in Regulation D-2 of the BWM
Convention (see Table 2 ). The following vessel types are not required to meet
numerical ballast water discharge standards:

• Vessels engaged in short distance voyages, i.e. vessels which operate exclusively
in one Coast Guard COTP Zone,
• Vessels which do not travel more than 10 nautical miles (NM) and cross no
physical barriers or obstructions (e.g., locks), whether or not they operate within
one U.S. Coast Guard COTP zone,
• Unmanned, unpowered barges, such as hopper barges, and
• Existing bulk carriers built before January 1, 2009, confi ned exclusively to the
Great Lakes upstream of the Welland Canal (Lakers).

However, additional requirements exist for Lakers:

• Annual inspections of vessel to assess sediment accumulations. Removal of sedi-

ment, if necessary, must be carried out,

• When practical and safe, vessels must minimize the ballast water taken dockside,

as to limiting the uptake to the amount of ballast water required to safely depart
the dock and then complete ballasting in deeper water, and

• Perform annual inspections of their sea chest screens to assure that they are fully

intact and repair or replace deteriorated screens.

Here the same compliance options exist as documented above for the Final Rule,
but no AMS provision is given in the current draft. Further, no exemption is given
for coastwise tankers as in the Final Rule. The compliance control requirements
include Method Detection Limits (biocides and residuals), BWM Plan, BWM prac-
tice requirement and to meet the discharge standards.

United States Regulation by Individual States

U.S. states have the authority under the Clean Water Act to impose different ballast
water standards and examples are given below. It should be noted that these stan-
dards are all subject to change.
Three U.S. states California (see Table 3 ), Minnesota, and Wisconsin (see
Table 4 ) developed laws, regulations, or permits establishing numeric ballast water
discharge standards or issued treatment requirements. Michigan requires the use of
a ballast water treatment process approved by the Department of Environmental
Quality and sets no numeric standard. Another four states included numeric ballast
water discharge limits as part of their Clean Water Act certifi cations of the VGP,

24 www.epa.gov/npdes/vessels , last accessed 02.04.2013.