Industry calls for uniform ballast water rules

Industry calls for uniform ballast water rules    Members of the House of Representatives on Wednesday heard a call for uniformity in laws governing the treatment and discharge of ballast water treatment.
   The American Waterways Operators (AWO), a trade organization for the tug-and-barge industry, said the U.S. Coast Guard regulates the discharge of ballast water under the National Invasive Species Act (NISA), while the Environmental Protection Agency regulates ballast water and 25 other vessel discharges under the Clean Water Act's National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit program. This includes water ranging from air conditioner condensate to water used to wash the deck of ships.
   Because neither NISA nor section 402 of the Clean Water Act pre-empts state regulation of vessel discharges, AWO said dozens of states have established their own regimes governing vessel discharges.

Lobiondo

   Rep. Frank LoBiondo, R-N.J., said during a joint hearing of the House Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation and the Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment that in addition to the Coast Guard and EPA, vessel discharges are regulated by 26 states, two Indian tribes and a U.S. territory. He said that overlapping regulations are contradictory, unachievable with current technology, and can hurt the economy.
   He pointed to regulations planned in New York that he said are 1,000 times stricter than those under a treaty created by the International Maritime Organization in 2004, and which are the bases of Coast Guard regulations nearing finalization.
   He said standards proposed by New York are not 'achievable or verifiable.
   'What we are looking at is New York State dictating to the entire industry what they have to meet — and that is an impossible standard,' he said. 'It's absurd, ridiculous and cannot be allowed to stand.'
   The law would affect ships entering the Port of New York and New Jersey and the St. Lawrence Seaway, since those ships must pass through New York waters.

Jewell

   “These well-intentioned regulations would have the effect of closing the St. Lawrence Seaway, thus disrupting shipping throughout the region and eliminating the waterway’s workforce,” said Michael Jewell, president of the Marine Engineers’ Beneficial Association.
   'We have to overcome this mindset that mandating a dozen different, unachievable standards, each more stringent than the next, somehow protects our environment. It does not,' LoBiondo said. 'The time has finally come to enact a clear, effective, and uniform national standard that utilizes available and cost effective technology to reduce the risk of future aquatic invasions. We cannot afford to delay any longer as ballast water continues to threaten our environment and our economy.'
   Vice Adm. Brian Salerno, deputy commandant for operations at the Coast Guard, said regulations for ballast water management nearing finalization would take effect next year would establish a standard similar to that was agreed to by the IMO in 2004.
   Thomas A. Allegretti, president and chief executive officer of the American Waterways Operators, a trade association for the tug-and-barge industry, and the Shipping Industry Coalition, an alliance of maritime trade associations, said they are focused on 'environmentally sound and economically practicable solutions to prevent the introduction and spread of invasive species in U.S. waters.'
   Allegretti said 'the lack of clear, uniform federal rules for managing vessel discharges, including ballast water that is used for maintaining the safety and stability of vessels while underway, creates ambiguity that makes it difficult for companies and mariners to comply with environmental regulations and puts hard-working Americans at risk of losing their jobs and becoming implicated in civil or criminal enforcement actions.
   'As a matter of good public policy, the NPDES permit program is the wrong framework for the regulation of discharges from vessels,' as it was designed to manage pollution fixed, land-based facilities, he said.
   For 35 years of the NPDES program's existence, vessel discharges were specifically exempted from the program by EPA regulation, but that was overturned in a 2008 Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision.
   'Congress can right this wrong and replace the current patchwork of overlapping and ill-fitting regulatory requirements with a national program for the management of vessel discharges that is consistent, effective, practical, and clear,' Allegretti said.
   'We have witnessed a competition among states to establish the most stringent treatment standards on the books,' he said. 'Under the logic of this competition, if the International Maritime Organization standard is good, a standard 100 or 1,000 times more stringent than the IMO standard must be better.'
   He said the technology to achieve those standards or measure them 'simply does not exist,' and that businesses cannot invest what he said would be hundreds of thousands of dollars for a small towing vessel to millions of dollars for a large containership to install a ballast water treatment system that might be acceptable in some states but not others.
   'Simply put, we have spent much of the last several years arguing about, and sometimes litigating, fantasy standards, instead of promulgating and implementing effective ones. That is as bad for the environment as it is bad for business.'
   MEBA’s Jewell expressed concern that the ballast regulations could put U.S.-flag shipping at a disadvantage with ships registered in other countries and employing foreign seafarers.
   He said state-specific regulations would be difficult for operators to understand and comply with since their industry is by nature international and interstate.
   He asked that special consideration be given to “lakers,” vessels that never leave the Great Lakes system. He argued they have not introduced non-indigenous species and generally rely on speedier transfer of ballast water and may need different systems for treating ballast water as a result. ' Chris Dupin